Roadtrip!
by NotsoSugarQueen
Summary: It's a whole new summer, and with the counselors at camp setting out on a cross country road trip, it's definitely going to be interesting! With an enchanted RV, plenty of pranks and Leo Valdez driving, what could possibly go wrong? Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Roadtrip!**

**A.N.: for all of you that read my HoH story, I mentioned a story that I would be releasing soon that I wouldn't tell you about, because it would've completely ruined the surprise, but it's here! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO and I never ever will.**

One: Annabeth PoV

I jumped out of my dad's car, kissing his cheek goodbye hastily before grabbing my bags and racing past Thalia's pine and down into the valley. Camp. Finally.

I made my way across the central green, saying hello to everyone as I passed. I was so freaking happy I could've broken into song, no joke. I dropped my things onto the floor, dragging my trunk out from under my bunk, prepared to unpack when I felt a light tap on my shoulder.

"Excuse me? I'm looking for someone, her name is Annabeth Chase, but I know her as Wise Girl," a familiar voice remarked.

Percy Jackson.

"Percy," I breathed before kissing him, his arms wrapping around my waist as I stood up on tip-toe. I smiled against him mouth and deepened the kiss. It was a good thing I couldn't talk at the same time, otherwise he would've heard my desperate sigh. Percy is most definitely the only person that could easily force it out of me. All it would take was a few kisses her and there and some brushing of the fingertips… Gods, I sound like an Aphrodite girl.

"Um… hello, PDA?" Malcolm interrupted, wrinkling his nose. I rolled my eyes as we broke apart, my cheeks hot. Percy grinned unashamedly.

"Sorry, Malcolm, but I haven't seen her since Spring Break," he explained.

"Yeah, yeah, lovers reunion and all that. Whatever. Just try not to let it get too far in broad daylight," my half brother replied as he turned to grab a few blueprints from the cork board.

"Malcolm!" I cried, my face definitely more red than before. Even Percy was showing hints of a blush through his tan.

"Whatever, sis," he called back as he left the cabin. I turned back to Percy.

"Well, we can do whatever you want after I unpack," I told him, opening my camp trunk and unzipping my suitcase.

"No need," he said, stopping me. "Chiron has a little surprise for all the head counselors. I don't know what it is yet, but he told us not to bother. He's going to tell us at the meeting tonight."

"Really?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. That was strange. Percy shrugged and I zipped my suitcase back up and placed it on my bunk, sliding my trunk back underneath.

"Come on, let's take a walk. It's just so good to be back," I suggested, and Percy took my hand as we walked back outside. The central green was in full bloom, and the sun was gently beating down. All of the cabins were alive with activity, old and new campers alike running around, unpacking and meeting up with friends.

"I love this place," Percy told me as we walked.

"Me too," I agreed, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek.

"Careful. I don't want Malcolm to come murder me in my sleep," he warned jokingly, and I laughed.

"Please, Seaweed Brain. I think he knows that I'd have to kill him if he did that," I replied easily. He grinned.

"That's always nice to hear," he told me honestly.

"So what's new here?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I don't exactly know what you mean by new. I've only been here one day more than you have. Katie and Travis are still not together and still fighting. Some Legionares are coming to visit, Reyna, Dakota and Bobby. Jason arrived a few days ago with Piper. You know, if you wanted an update on all the gossip, why aren't you asking Drew? I mean, no offense, but she's way more likely to be able to fill you in."

I snorted. "Yeah, and she's way less likeable."

"Good point," he agreed.

We had reached the beach, and the moment our feet hit the sand Percy picking me up, bridal style and ran towards the water. I yelped at the chill it gave me, but there was no point in complaining. Besides, as weird as it was, Long Island Sound was pretty special to us. It was, after all, where we'd gotten together.

He dunked me underwater and I popped up, glaring at him. I was soaked, still in my camp clothes and my blond hair was not looking too princessy. Percy laughed and touched my arm, drying me off, but at the same time, sending shivers up my spine. He pulled me in and I wrapped my arms around my neck. His eyes stared back into mine, their sea green like some kind of intoxicating, life saving drug. We'd been to hell and back—literally—and I knew that nothing, not even my scheming, overprotective mom, could come between us. We would die for each other time and time again. I loved him.

He leaned down and kissed me slowly, our tongues engaging in what Matthew and Bobby would call tonsil hockey. But then again, they were still nine, and to them, girls had cooties.

We drew back, our foreheads resting gently against one another, breathing heavily. My heart was doing a dance routine in my chest, frantically banging against my ribcage. I hoped he couldn't hear it—or feel it, for that matter, seeing as to how close we were. He didn't need to know what he did to me.

"I love you," I whispered, smiling nervously. The words gave me this elated feeling every time we said them whether it was in person or after chatting for hours over the phone.

"I love you, too," he told me, before placing one last kiss on the tip of my nose before carrying me out of the water and setting me down carefully. The conch horn sounded.

"Race you to dinner," we both said at the same time before taking off. I beat him to the pavilion by a mere second, and I smirked triumphantly.

"Hey, I tripped," he said defensively, and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, okay, Percy." I gave him a smile before taking my designated seat at the head of the Athena table. It sucked, not being able to sit with him, but I think it was good. We were best friends as well as a couple, but I didn't want anyone accusing me of being attached, even if we were.

It was just one of those things that happened once you've had countless near death experiences with someone. You become inseparable.

After scraping the best roll into the fire and murmuring thanks to my mom and Aphrodite, I sat back down and dug in. Percy sat alone with Tyson and Grover at the Poseidon table, digging into barbecue and blue Cherry Coke. We made faces at each other across the pavilion, silently laughing.

Chiron stood and stomped his foot on the floor, calling for silence.

"Welcome back, campers, to another summer, and I hope you are all well," he began, smiling at all of us. "Capture the Flag will be next week, and there is a head counselor meeting at the Big House after dinner. To the gods!" he raised his glass in a toast and drank from it, the rest of us mimicking his motions.

When I'd cleared off my plate, I told Malcolm to take the rest of the cabin back to Cabin 6 to get ready for bed while I was at the meeting.

Percy met me at the edge of the pavilion, wordlessly taking my hand. We walked up to the Big House. Anticipation was thrumming through my whole body. Whatever surprise Chiron had in store, I hoped it would be good, and not some ominous quest or dilemma. I'd had way too many of those in my lifetime.

Everyone was taking seats around the ping-pong table, Katie glaring daggers at Travis for putting mud in her sheets, Piper seated casually on Jason's lap, Leo fooling around with whatever metal trinket he was working on. Lou Ellen was painting her hand with henna, and Clarisse was sharpening her dagger while talking to Will Solace. The whole scene was reminiscent of the one when I'd first announced that Percy was at Camp Jupiter with no memory. Except this time, he was here with me.

Chiron rolled in, retracted into his special wheelchair.

"As you have all heard, I have a special surprise for you," he began, smiling. "I know that in the last few years, our camp has been through a lot, and all of you are growing older at time goes on. It's always been difficult to travel for demigods, so I've arranged for you to take a cross country road trip together this summer, and you will be leaving tomorrow before lunch. You can see anything you've always wanted to see, and I can trust that you'll stay safe with each other and the enchantments that have been placed on the RV that the gods have graciously provided."

For a second, there was silence.

And then the shouting began.

**You like? I really wanted to use this idea, because it has a lot of potential for pranks, drama and romance. It will not only be in Annabeth's perspective, and I will try to include as many pairings as possible. If you have any requests, you can just tell me, and I'll try to make them happen as long as they don't interfere with the plot I have planned. Please review, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated! Thanks so much for reading!**

**-NotsoSugarQueen**


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N.: Oh my holy sugar mamma! 10 followers and 3 favorites in the first chapter! I'm completely ecstatic right now!**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own PJO, how many times do I have to say it?**

Two: Piper PoV

"This thing is just amazing," Leo remarked, his face in a clear expression of awe and wonderment.

The three of us were standing in front of the RV Chiron and the gods had provided, waiting to set off on our road trip.

Jason placed his arm around me gently, and I leaned into him, breathing in his fresh, soapy smell. We'd decided to take on Camp Jupiter and Camp Half Blood together, rotating throughout the year so we could each be at home. So far, it'd been chaotic, but fun.

Argus stepped down from inside the RV and looked at Chiron expectantly. Argus wasn't really a talker, since he had eyes all over his body, even on his tongue.

Chiron cleared his throat, smiling. "So this is where we see you off," he started, surveying each and every one of us. "My only request it that you check in once or twice a week, and be back before August 10th. And just to remind you, Reyna, Hazel and Frank may be joining you. The RV can be tracked, so don't worry as to how they will find you."

"We will, Chiron, no worries," Annabeth replied. She and Percy stood side by side, hands entwined, each of them wearing camp tee shirts and jeans, or in Annabeth's case, shorts.

"I know you will, child," Chiron answered. "Now, it's now or never."

We boarded the bus, each of us saying our goodbyes in turn. None of us had ever been inside the RV before, and it was definitely mind blowing.

Clearly, it was enchanted to look a bit bigger than it was from the outside. At the back, there were nineteen bunks, one for per head counselor, and then there was an extra because there were two Stolls. The girl bunks were on one side, and the boys were on the others, in a discreet attempt to separate us. In the front, there was a plush driver's seat, built in couches and a table nailed down, along with a kitchenette. At the very back was a bathroom, complete with a shower.

"I'm so driving!" Leo yelled, and he hopped into the driver's seat, examining the controls with zeal.

"Yeah, okay Repair Boy, take it easy," Katie called out warningly. The rest of us walked to the back, claiming bunks. I had one right across from Jason, above Annabeth. Each bunk was cozy, but not claustrophobic, and simple in design with a dial to rotate wallpaper color, a curtain for privacy and a comfy, clearly tempurpedic twin mattress. At the foot of the bed was a set of two shelves for anything we wanted to keep out in the open. With the Stolls in the room, I knew that wouldn't be much.

"This is my new definition of heaven," I commented, kicking off my tattered tie dyed Vans and letting them fall to the floor below.

"I know," Annabeth replied from below. "The design is amazing, and the expansion enchantments on this thing must be complicated."

"Okay please don't go all smart on us, Wise Girl," Percy mock complained from across the aisle. Annabeth tossed a pillow at him, laughing.

"You know you love it, Seaweed Brain," she shot back.

"Let's keep it PG, you two," the Stolls called from the front of the bus. Annabeth and Percy's faces were flaming red.

"Yeah, no sex, please," Leo agreed.

"Leo!" Annabeth protested as all of us laughed.

"Whatever," he called back, grinning jokingly. "So, where do we want to go first?"

A dozen hands shot up, each of us suggesting our first destination.

"Niagra Falls," Cassie, from the Nike Cabin suggested.

"I say Boston," Butch countered.

Leo listened carefully to each request, considering it. "Nah," he finished. "I say good old NYC. Just for a day or two."

"Fine," Clarisse grumbled. "Even if we've already been there a million times."

"Okay then, off we go!" Leo yelled, tuning into the radio so that music streamed through the speakers and peeling away from the road near camp, causing me to practically topple out of my bunk.

I was seriously regretting letting Leo drive, but then again, he was good with mechanics and cars. And we were sixteen, so it was legal. Not that he had his license, but whatever.

Jason glanced across the aisle at me, grinning ear to ear, his god-like features illuminated by the soft morning light that seeped through the windows. Just seeing his face made my heart melt and my legs go gooey. I resisted the urge to sigh dreamily, reminding myself that this was reality, and I needed to return to it.

"Well," he said, shrugging. "This will be fun."

Barely an hour later, we entered New York City, the buzzing metropolis bustling with activity and life. I guess New Yorkers didn't ask a lot of questions, because personally, if I'd seen an RV in the middle of a big city, I would've asked a few.

But like I said, this was New York we were talking about.

"I want to go clubbing," Lou Ellen announced, standing up from her seat on the sofa beside Connor. I could swear they had a thing going, but both of them firmly dismissed the idea. For all I knew they were friends with benefits, hooking up in the stock room of the camp store while Connor was on duty. She was the head counselor of the Hecate Cabin, and while she didn't have a death glare like Annabeth's, she was still pretty intimidating. Her hair was jet black and she kept it back in a doughnut bun, with braided pieces hanging out and sticking every which way, a purple bandana tied in a bow acting as a headband. She had these dark, inky purple eyes that looked pretty creepy when they glared at you, and her face was freckled, her hands tattooed with henna. And was it just my imagination, or did Connor's fingertips brush across her upper thigh as she stood?

Gods, I sound like Drew, which is not a good development. But then again, I had a pretty good excuse. I did share a goddess of love of a mother with her. I had romance intuition.

"Yeah. There have to be underage nightclubs open. It's a Friday night tonight. We should go," Travis added.

"Please. You just want to go so you can pick up some mortal girl," Katie scoffed. Travis rolled his eyes and huffed.

"And you have a problem with that, Gardner?" He teased. Everyone's hands were covering their own mouths to resist laughing.

"Don't you wish I did," she retorted before standing up and walked brusquely back to her bunk, Travis's eyes following her as she retreated.

"Yeah, let's go out," Butch agreed, taking us back to the subject at hand. "Does anyone know any good nightclubs?"

"Nope, but I will in a few seconds," Leo called from the front of the RV as he typed something into a small tablet. "There's supposed to be a good place on the corner of 25th St., with good reviews called Star Bar."

"Star Bar? Really? How creative they are," Will Solace remarked sarcastically.

"Whatever. It's a nightclub, and I want to dance," Lou Ellen cut in, hands on her hips. "To the Star Bar we go."

**Good? Please review, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated! The next chapter will be very interesting, I can promise you that much! Thanks so much for reading, it means a lot!**

**-NotsoSugarQueen**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ahhh! 10 reviews, 18 followers and 6 favorites! You guys are the best, and here's a special virtual blue waffle to all of you! #**

**Disclaimer: No I don't own PJO, and I'm trying to get over it. **

Three: Katie PoV

Right now, I really want to kill Lou Ellen for suggesting that we go clubbing. I mean sure, I like to go out and dance and everything, but I don't really like it when your good friends Piper McLean and Annabeth Chase hijack your wardrobe and force you into a scandalously low cut sparkly green v neck bodycon dress that hits your mid thigh and practically kidnap you in order to do your make-up. I hate surprises, even when they were good. And this was no exception. I didn't understand why Clarisse escaped punishment and I didn't.

"Are you done yet?" I whined, fidgeting in my bunk, Piper was seated across from me, carefully applying liquid eyeliner. She swiped something sticky on my lips and drew back.

"You're done," she announced, clapping her hands as I opened my eyes, immediately grabbing Piper's little pocket mirror and staring at my reflection.

Okay, so maybe this wasn't that bad of a surprise. Certainly not something I would've attempted on my own, that's for sure.

Along with braiding my dark hair along my hairline, Piper had applied creamy shimmer eye-shadow to my lids that blended nicely with my ivory skin, and my green eyes looked big thanks to the winged black eyeliner and mascara. My lips were a rosy peach color and glossy. I smiled, experimenting with this unfamiliar girl's face.

"Thanks, Piper," I said, hugging her. She handed me a pair of black high heels that looked a little more like torture devices than shoes, but I obliged, slipping them onto my feet. Annabeth walked over, looking stunning in her low backed short sleeved silver dress and simple metallic sandal heels, her hair released from its normal pony, exposing it's princess curl glory. Her eyes were framed by smoky eye make-up and curled eyelashes, her lips pouty and pale.

"Are we ready?" Lou Ellen called from the front of the RV. The boys, along with a few of the other girls that were already done, were outside in the parking lot we'd conveniently chosen, waiting. She walked over, looking practiced in the art of walking in spiky black heels. Her dark hair was pulled back in a simple half up half down, cascading down her back in its normal beach waves. She was wearing a lacy black dress with long sleeves and a sheer middle, her violet eyes peering out from beneath thick black eyeliner, henna traced on her hands and feet. She was definitely a character.

"Please, Lou. I was born ready," Piper scoffed, standing up and taking one last glance in the mirror. She was naturally beautiful, however much she tried to tone it down, but I knew she was worried about Jason's opinion. Like it could ever be anything less than: _Gods, she's a knockout_. She was wearing a baby blue mod style dress, her Cherokee complexion bronze and shiny, her hair braided and looped every which way. Annabeth had done a good job with her make-up, applying simple bronze shadow and maroon lipstick and some sparkly gold eyeliner.

Together, we headed towards the front of the bus and disembarked.

The guys turned around, and I smirked. Percy could barely restrain himself from not letting his jaw drop through the floor at the sight of his Annabeth in a tight dress, walking towards him calmly. Piper hurried over to Jason, smiling sweetly. Lou Ellen crossed her arms and looked at Connor.

"Gods, Stud, you really don't have much tact when it comes to ladies, do you? Do I have to bewitch you to come over her and lead me to our destination?" she teased. Connor grinned sheepishly and walked over, taking her arm after mock bowing to her. She laughed and poked his arm as they joined the other couples in pleasant chatter. The rest of us were in something of a big group, consisting of Butch, Leo, Cassie, Clarisse (who was wearing a camouflage skirt and red tank top with combat boots), Nico, Jamie who was the head counselor of the Tyche Cabin, Will Solace, Pollux and Zanna, the punk girl that ruled over the Nemesis Cabin. And of course, lets not forget the one and only, most annoying Travis Stoll. Even if he did look kind of cute in his simple jeans and white tee shirt, his blue eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Well, Gardner, you clean up well," he remarked, falling in step beside me as we walked along the sidewalk towards the club. I rolled my eyes.

"Please Stoll. Do not try your charm with me," I replied, turning my head to pointedly look the other way.

Travis shrugged, flashing me one of his jokester smirks. "Who says I was, Katie-Kat?" I sighed, deciding it was probably a good idea to just ignore him as we waited in line to get inside.

Once we made our way past the bouncer, we ducked inside. The room was huge and the ceiling vaulted, glittering with multicolored stars and a disco ball, which seemed kind of cheesy, but appropriate at the same time. There was a long bar stretching the length of the room with navy leather swivel chairs and a polished, Formica topped surface on one side, and multiple blue booths on the other. At the far end was a dim stage, clearly not in present use, and a corner strewn with DJ equipment and speakers that amplified sound to an unimaginable level. I could practically feel the music pumping through my body, vibrating in my bones.

"Come on," Cassie squealed, grabbing my arm as well as Zanna's, and tugging us onto the dance floor. Zanna rolled her pitch black eyes, sighing as she began to dance, swirling her hips in a figure eight motion. I spotted Annabeth and Percy, engaged in some seriously close quarters, moving in ways that you wouldn't really expect them to move, as dignified as Annabeth was. Lou Ellen was grinding on a pleased looking Connor Stoll, and Jason and Piper were hand in hand, jokingly dancing the cha-cha.

"Wanna dance?" a boy with sandy blond hair and scruffy face asked, politely holding out a hand. I smiled.

"Why not?" I leaned in towards him and we began to dance, our bodies awkwardly out of sync for a few seconds before we settled into each other.

"My name's Alex," he introduced.

"Katie," I replied. "I'm here with some friends of mine."

He raised his eyebrows. "No boyfriend? I can't say I'm not surprised."

I looked away. It was a nice compliment, but he was a mortal, and he didn't know how camp stereotypes worked. I was a good girl. I wasn't a pretty Aphrodite girl, or in Drew's case, skank, or a super smart brave girl like Annabeth, I wasn't sporty like Cassie, or kick ass like Clarisse or Zanna. And I definitely wasn't known for cons and tricks and spells like Lou Ellen. I was just Katie Gardner, the flower girl. Nothing remarkable. The Plain Jane.

A hand touched my shoulder, jerking me away from my new acquaintance.

"I wouldn't say that," Travis said coolly, but you could tell from his blue eyes, usually plotting, that he was angry. "After all, she has me, which means she certainly doesn't need you."

He grabbed my hand and tugged me away from Alex, not saying anything. He stopped when he neared our friends and faced me, opening his mouth to say something. But before he had the opportunity, I slapped him. I'm pleased to say I left a decent five star on his cheek.

"What the hell, Stoll? You don't own me, and I know for a fact that you're _not_ my boyfriend. Besides, he was nice. And if you were so worried, you could've said something!" I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest defiantly. But then I quickly let them fall to my sides, realizing that it bumped my C-cup up to a D-cup. And I didn't want Travis appreciating my assets while I was yelling at him.

He didn't say anything, running his fingers through his hair, seemingly exasperated. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?"

"You really don't get it, do you? Sorry will never be enough for all the times you've dyed my hair green, put mud in my sheets, chocolate bunnies on my roof or any of the other annoying pranks you've pulled on my cabin. And now we're on a head counselor road trip, trying to have a nice time, and I can't even _dance_ with another guy! What the hell is your problem?" I shot back bitterly. My night was ruined. This guy, whom I'd known ever since I'd accidentally punched him in the face while playing Capture the Flag when I was eight, was not my favorite person on earth to begin with. And now he decides he's going to be the annoying prankster one minute and the protective wannabe boyfriend the next. Last time I checked, I could take perfect care of myself. And if I'd needed help, I certainly wouldn't have asked Travis Stoll, of all people.

"Hey, watch the language. And Gardner, you've got it all wrong," he protested, holding his hands up in surrender. And he had the nerve to joke around and brush it off. Jerk. I stomped off towards the bar, where Clarisse and Leo were drinking.

Clarisse nodded, her brown eyes solemn as I took the seat beside her. Leo didn't look up, dazed due to whatever was in his glass.

"Missing Chris?" I asked. Clarisse nodded.

"He definitely more sane than any of you punks," she replied, taking a sip.

I turned to the bar tender, thinking, what the hell? I'm Katie freaking Gardner, and I can do whatever the hell I please. "One shot of tequila, please."

I was a little surprised he didn't even ask about my age, instead just sliding a small shot glass down the bar a few moments later. I threw my head back and sipped it, letting the alcohol burn down my throat. It left me feeling relaxed and loose. Free. I giggle uncharacteristically and request another one, downing it in a single swallow.

Clarisse raised an eyebrow and swiped the glass away. "No more for you, Katie. I have a feeling you don't handle buzz well."

"Hey, be nice," I chided, sliding off my seat and stumbling towards the dance floor, where the others were still enjoying themselves. Zanna and Nico were dancing together, and Cassie and Butch were chatting, laughing. Travis was leaning against the wall, sulking.

Everything was fuzzy, and my stomach felt weird.

"Hey Cassie, Butch," I said, laughing. Butch gave me a weird look.

"Uh, Katie, you okay?" Cassie asked, grabbing my arm to steady me. The heels were definitely been a bad idea. Mental note: don't go nightclubbing and do shots in heels. Not a good idea.

"Yeah, yeah. Stop worrying," I assured her, feeling woozy as I pushed past, farther into the crowd.

An all to familiar hand grabs my arm, stopping me from heading farther into the mob of dancing bodies.

"Gardner," he says, and my vision swims before me. I see a boy with brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes, a boy I recognize as Travis Stoll. Gods, he is cute. Why had I never noticed it before?

"Gardner," he repeats, his face serious. "Are you okay?"

I am practically in his arms now, leaning up against his chest. He smells good, clean and spicy. I smile at him before pushing myself up onto my tip-toes and kissing him. His lips are soft, and for a mere second, they move against me, before I pull back and giggle. He looks distant for a second before giving me a sympathetic look.

"You're drunk," he decides. "Katie, I'm taking you back to the RV."

"No," I insist as he steers me back through the crowd. The world is spinning and I trip and almost fall, except for the strong arms that save me from face planting at the last moment.

"Where are you taking me?" I ask as he says something to a girl in combat boots by the bar, and she nods. We continue towards the exit.

"Back to the RV," he replies expressionlessly. "You're going to hate yourself in the morning."

"Why would I hate myself?" I laugh at the stupidity of the statement. No one can hate themselves, right?

"Nevermind," he says. We are outside now, walking down the sidewalk. It's nighttime, and the streetlamps are on, like halos. It's drizzling, the pitter patter of the rain a distant sound in the back ground. I can feel the drops on my head and bare skin with stunning clarity, even when everything else is blurred and warped.

We take a right into a parking lot, where a big RV is parked. I feel a flicker or recognition at the back of my mind, but it disappears as quickly as it comes. He unlocks the door and helps me up the few stairs. I fall onto the couch, laughing. He pulls my heels off my feet and helps me back up, leading me to the bathroom.

"I don't need to go to the bathroom and I'm not on my period," I tell him firmly. His face drains of color as if this is an awkward subject but ignores me. He pushes open the door and flicks on the lights. Right as I set my eyes on the porcelain toilet I lean forward and fall to my knees, my stomach clenching as I throw up. A hand holds my dark hair back and massages the strained muscles in my back as I heave. I stop and fall back against someone.

I am floating, swayed gently as I'm carried away somewhere, and then put down on a soft bed. My eyes flutter closed and the last thing I remember before I pass out is a pair of soft lips barely grazing my forehead. And then everything goes black.

**Like? It's definitely my longest chapter yet, and I really wanted to zero in on Tratie, since they are definitely one of the cutest couples, and my third favorite (my first being Percabeth and Leyna, of course). I thought it would be good to put Katie into a somewhat humiliating situation where Travis ends up playing hero, and her getting drunk seemed perfect. The next chapter will not be in her point of view, unless I get begged by multiple reviewers. But either way, there will be details of her being hungover. I loved writing this because its interesting to see Katie, the good girl, taking shots and acting like a complete idiot, when she's usually uptight. Anyways, please review, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated! Thanks so much for reading!**

**-NotsoSugarQueen**


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N.: I love you guys so much! 26 follows and 11 favorites! You guys are just amazing, and this story wouldn't be the same without you! I'm sorry it took me a little bit longer than usual, I've been a bit busy, you see, and I needed to read Clockwork Princess, the final installment of the Infernal Devices Trilogy by Cassandra Clare (if you don't read her books you really, really should, they're amazing!) and I cried when I read the Epilogue, because everything was perfect and then, BAM! Flash forwards to the future a hundred years and her true love is freaking dead! Like, what is up with that? I sobbed my heart out over it, but you probably could care less, so here it is, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Do I really have to say it again?**

Four: Lou Ellen PoV

I think it was safe to say that Katie was pretty mortified when she woke up and discovered what had happened. I mean, getting drunk and having your nemesis play hero as you vomit into the toilet isn't exactly everyone's dream come true. Clearly, she didn't stomach tequila too well.

It was the morning after we'd gone clubbing, and we'd taken off, picking up breakfast at Dunkin Donuts on the way out of NYC. Katie had woken up when we'd returned. Piper, Annabeth, Clarisse and I were playing Go Fish, while Zanna was still sleeping, Cassie read some romance book and the guys were fooling around up front, while they drank their coffee and ate their breakfast sandwiches. Well, that was actually a lie, seeing as to the fact that anyone who offered Leo coffee was certifiably insane. He was already too ADHD as it was.

She stirred in her sleep, her dark hair messed up and sticking out in all different directions as she sat up, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

"What happened?" she mumbled, moving to stand up, but Clarisse stopped her with a push to lie back down.

"You might want to wait a few seconds, girl. You're gonna be a little out of it today, seeing as to the fact that you got wasted last night and puked your guts out afterwards," she told her firmly, and Katie rolled her eyes nonchalantly, not bothered by her statement in the least. Annabeth raised her eyebrows.

"You really don't know what happened last night, do you?" she clarified, giving Katie a sideways glance like she might have hit her head.

"No. Why do you think I asked. I feel like crap and—" she lunged out of her bunk and made it to the bathroom in time. I wrinkled my rose as the retching sounds of an upset stomach reached my ears.

She returned moments later, stumbling.

"Well, to be short, you decided it would be a good idea to take tequila shots, even though you can barely handle the light beer we snuck in during winter break, and got drunk, made out with Travis and then said Stoll took you back here early and held your hair back as you heaved into the toilet," I said simply. Her eyes widened and her face got as red as the rims of her eyes and she buried her face in her pillow.

"Oh gods," she mumbled sickly. "Why Stoll? Anyone would have been better than Stoll."

We laughed hysterically. Only Katie Gardner and her personal vendetta could have come up with that response. Not even her crumpled dress crossed her mind. Her damaged ego was top of the list.

"Like I said, Katie, fate has a way of making things happen," Piper remarked, smirking behind her cards as she denied having any twos and Clarisse sighed, plucking another card from the middle.

"Oh shut up!" Katie moaned.

"Yeah, he's obviously got a thing for you," Cassie chimed in from her bunk, looking up from her thick book to add to the conversation.

"You know what, I'm going to go take a shower," Katie decided, grabbing some clean black yoga pants and a dark v neck tee shirt from her suitcase, along with a bra, panties and deodorant and walking down the aisle to the bathroom in defeat.

"Make sure you lock the door!" I called. "You never know who might fancy a visit with you!"

"You have a dirty mind!" she yelled as she slammed the door shut and we heart the sound of running water.

I giggled. "Isn't she just the best form of entertainment when it comes to drama?" I commented. The others nodded in agreement. Percy walked over, leaning down to give Annabeth a kiss on the jaw and she gave him a look before kissing him on the lips, her cheeks tinted pink. Connor glanced over at us from his place on the sofa.

"Hey, are those cards?" he asked.

"Yeah, what did you think we were doing, cutting coupons?" Clarisse snapped, her snarky remark clearly not having any effect on him.

"Who's up for some poker?" he suggested, giving me a quick glance.

"Naw, Stud, it has to be better than that. Strip poker sounds more appropriate to me," I added, giving him a smirk.

"Katie's right, you do have a dirty mind!" Piper cried. "I'm not undressing in front of everyone!"

"Not even Golden Boy?" Zanna inquired, clearly awake. Her black eyeliner was smudged under her eyes and she looked like a very intimidating zombie. "Because I'm totally up for it, after I get dressed. I want some insurance just in case."

"What, afraid you're going to loose a few drachmas?" Leo teased from the front. "I'm sorry to say I can't play, but I can be referee."

"Yeah, you say I'm the chicken," Zanna muttered darkly, drawing a curtain across her bunk to get changed.

"Which reminds me, what city are we headed to again?" Cassie inquired, dog-earing her current page and placing her book aside, climbing down from her bunk to play. She might've been a year younger than me, but she sure had guts. I wondered if it was the whole Nike kid thing, the confidence that you won't loose since your mom's the goddess of victory.

"Straight for Philadelphia, sweetheart," Leo said, with a twang of Southern accent. "I'm craving a Philly Cheesesteak."

"Yeah, you know Philadelphia isn't a Southern state, right?" Annabeth remarked dryly, rolling her eyes.

"Whatever. After that, I think we should pay a visit to Miami," he added, the fake accent gone from his voice, his jokester grin still plastered on his face.

"Good thing I packed my bikini," Jamie said. "I could really use some sun, too."

"Yeah, you could use some sun," Cassie scoffed. "What about those of us who instead of tanning, get bright red?" Her strawberry blond hair and freckles made her a target of the Sun Chariot's ultraviolet rays, no doubt. Last summer, we'd seen her transform into a red lobster, with painful blisters gracing her back and shoulders.

"Hello? SPF 30, anyone?" Jamie replied. "Besides, no one's demanding that you lay out in the sun all day. Lock yourself in doors if you really want."

Cassie gave her a sour look before changing the subject. "So, strip poker it is then."

"Hell yeah!" Travis whooped. Katie returned from the bathroom, looking something deathly with her red rimmed eyes. Her dark hair was towel dried, and she collapsed into her bunk, burying her face into her pillow. For a good girl like Katie, I figured this whole experience must be mortifying. Then she popped back up abruptly, her green eyes wide.

"Strip poker?" she deadpanned, as if daring us to contradict her assure her that no, there would be no gambling and undressing for the time being. But no one did, and she closed her eyes like she was sending some sort of silent prayer to the gods for mercy.

"Yes, and I think that everyone should be required to participate, except for Leo, seeing as to the fact that he's driving, and I know firsthand that driving a car and trying to simultaneously take your shirt off doesn't work out too well," Travis said cheerfully, avoiding Katie's glare.

I tossed him the deck of cards, drawing a few drachmas out of my purple purse in my bunk for the game. Travis shuffled and dealt easily. There were a lot of us, but I guess he had the rules all worked out. Knowing the tendencies of the Hermes Cabin, I wasn't too surprised.

Katie let out a groan and sat up, hugging her pillow to her chest before tugging on a pair of socks, as if it would delay her stripping off her clothes as she lost.

"Okay, I'm just going to say this now: there is not stripping down past underwear, and in any girl's case, that includes a bra," Annabeth stated clearly.

"Personally, I wouldn't mind," Connor remarked, shrugging his shoulders as he examined his cards.

"Stud, you may be a hot shot, but you are still perverted," I told him, sending him a look. He returned it with an innocent, wide eyed blue gaze, as if I couldn't see right through it. Even if those eyes were startlingly attractive.

"Okay, who goes first?" Zanna said, looking up from her fan of cards expectantly.

"I vote Clarisse," Leo called from the driver's seat.

We all looked at her. She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Here goes my dignity," she said under her breath, before tossing out the first card to begin the game.

I smiled to myself. One way or another, this was sure gonna be interesting.

**Like it? Love it? Or did you simply just gotta have it? Sorry, I visited Coldstone over the weekend. I apologize once again for the update, I have been very busy filling out applications for high schools and homework and sports. I'm warning you that my updating may slow down to once or maybe twice a week. I know that's the usual pace for most writers, but I tend to update quickly and frequently, so this will be a significant change. I'm also considering putting my story The Game of Love on temporary hiatus, just until I can hopefully wrap up Mr. Fix-It (sorry to all of you who love my Leyna fanfiction, I love it too, but I may just need to take a breather from it, so don't worry too much) and this story will be my first priority, since I'm simply overflowing with plot ideas and twists. And don't worry, the Romans will show up soon, you'll just have to wait to find out when. Some Leyna is promised as well, seeing as to they are just amazing. Thanks so much for reading and do review!**

**-NotsoSugarQueen **


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N.: yeah, I know, you're probably upset at me for not updating as quickly as I usually do, but in my defense, I did warn you. But this has 35 followers and 14 favorites, so I hope that you can just ignore the infrequent updates. Anyways, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own PJO. I'm in the process of getting over it.**

Five: Travis PoV

Let's just say that strip poker may be one of my favorite games.

Now, don't go running off thinking gods, Travis is such a playboy pervert. And I'm not saying that I'm not, but hello? With my mad skills at gambling, poker meant instant drachmas. So as I was raking in mounds of gold coins, I wasn't in the least surprised.

Pollux, Butch, Piper, Jason, Jamie and Cassie had dropped out, moving their money into the growing pile in the middle. Annabeth and Percy were playing as a team, which personally, I didn't think was fair, but seeing as to the fact that they might as well have been attached at the hip, I didn't comment.

Lou Ellen and Connor were sending each other sly smiles across the table, and by the look on my brother's face, he wanted to gamble Lou Ellen out of clothes as soon as possible. He'd never been that great at hiding his emotions. I was the skilled liar in our dynamic duo. Nico and Zanna were calmly keeping their place in the game, expressionless, Nico missing his shoes, and Zanna missing her black sweater, leaving her in just a strappy tank top. Clarisse had let out a few insults as she discarded her bandana, but hadn't lost any clothes since. Will Solace was shirtless, and Katie was somehow, still clothed. I didn't know where she'd learned to play poker before, but she was holding her own. I'd never thought of her as a bad girl before, but then again, they say that good girls are just bad girls that don't get caught.

If that was the case, then Katie Gardner was the queen of not getting caught. Her spotless reputation as goody-two-shoes had long since headed the Demeter Cabin. And I'd never say it out loud, but I could still remember the feeling of her lips against mine with stunning clarity. They were soft and smooth, and she tasted like vanilla bean ice cream. Not a bad thing, mind you.

We hadn't spoken since I'd held her hair back and watched her hurl into the toilet last night, and it was only a few hours away from being twenty-four hours since. The sky was growing dark, and we were probably going to stop and get dinner soon. I was craving a good burger. I felt kind of bad, even though if it had been anyone else, I would've plotted ways to use it as blackmail material.

So when she got screwed over by Nico, I wasn't disappointed to see her hesitantly peel her shirt off, displaying a tanned, freckled flat stomach and a lacy purple bra. Not to mention, considerable cleavage.

"Well? What are you staring at?" She snapped, clearly embarrassed. I smirked at her, and she glared right back, her grassy green eyes boring into mine. I wordlessly played another card, winning the trick and scooping some more money out of the middle.

"Nothing Gardner. Why, were you under the impression that I was?" I replied in my best innocent voice, which I'd had a lot of practice perfecting.

She stood up, grabbing her green shirt. "Whatever Stoll. I'm done." She tossed her cards down on the coffee table in defeat and stormed off down the aisle towards her bunk.

"Is it just me, or did I just see Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll argue?" Zanna remarked in mock surprise.

"Shut up, Zanna," I shot at her, suddenly feeling pissed off. I was mad at Katie for getting up and walking away, shirtless or not, and I was ticked at Zanna for turning it into something it wasn't.

It wasn't _something_, right?

Because me being the Travis Stoll, official playboy and prankster of Camp Half-Blood, that could seriously screw my reputation up. I didn't need good girls like her dating me. It would send the wrong impression, also known as: commitment, out to the general public.

Zanna laughed, rolling her eyes as if to say: _well, we all know what's up with him_. I glared at her before I lost a few drachmas, reluctantly sliding them over to Annabeth and Percy.

"Hey, guys, why don't you wrap that up, and divide the money up in the middle? We need to stop soon, and I was thinking Five Guys or Panera. Anyways, the referee says the game is over, so scoot," Leo called from the front.

"Valdez," Connor groaned. "It was just getting good."

"Please, Stud," Lou Ellen scoffed. "You ain't seen nothing yet."

"I wouldn't bet on that," I muttered. It's not like they hadn't made out in the Hermes Cabin a few days before we'd left, Connor's hands sliding up under Lou Ellen's purple tank top.

They ignored me and proceeded to divvy up the drachmas in the middle. I pocketed my share as we pulled into a parking lot beside a Panera. Leo disappeared inside to grab some menus. He returned and passed them out until we'd all picked out what we wanted. He wrote it all down on a notepad he procured from his magic tool belt and returned to the restaurant, Butch, Jason and Nico in tow to help carry the food back out.

When they came back, I was expecting the pile of take out boxes in their arms. However, I wasn't expecting the three people filing in behind him, in silver tee shirts and cargo pants tucked into combat boots, even in the summertime. The first gave a huge smile, her electric blue eyes surveying the scene with ease, her spiky black hair braided with silver like some badass Gothic princess.

Hunters.

Or, to be more specific, Thalia Grace.

**Cliffy! You know you love them J Anyways, I was going to incorporate Romans, but then someone asked if the Hunters would show up, and since I need to brush up on my Thalico, I figured the hardcore Leyna and Frazel could wait a few chapters. But don't worry, they will show up. First, there's Miami waiting, along with some hot, hot, ****_hot_**** drama I have planned, and then they'll be heading farther west. Anyways, please review, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated. Thanks so much for reading!**

**-NotsoSugarQueen**


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N. Okay, so at a request of an anonymous reviewer, I will not make it overly Thalico and stick to the story. I'm deciding that I will do some one-sided Thalico (a.k.a. Nico likes Thalia) to satisfy both parties. Some of you might want to kill me right now, but the Guest did have a point. If I'm trying to really build of the amazing series Rick Riordan has written, I should keep some key points. And a vow of maidenhood is pretty serious. So I'm sticking to it. And also, I've gotten 49 followers and 25 favorites! Yay! And I'll give a special virtual cookie and shoutout to the 50****th**** follower! And last but not least, I'm going to start a new story as well, and it should be soon. And I'm also planning to wrap up my story ****Mr. Fix-It**** soon (sorry to all of you that adore that story, but I'm running out of inspiration) I'll consider just putting it on Hiatus if I'm given enough reason to. So, anyways, hopefully you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: yeah, yeah, I admit it. I don't own PJO. **

Six: Leo PoV

I pulled up to a Miami beach. I'd been driving for six hours straight, the Hunters brand new silver van trailing behind me. I guess Thalia had strongly suggested that they tag along on our little road trip to Artemis, and she'd given in to her lieutenant's request. And now the other counselors were just waking up, Thalia having crashed on the couch in her silver cargo pants and black band tee, her ears glittering with piercings in the early morning light.

"Bienvenidos a Miami!" I called, grinning sleepily. I reached towards the coffee maker, but a sleepy Piper beat me to it.

"No way, Repair Boy. You're our designated driver. There is no way we're letting you get a sugar rush," she told me matter-of-factly, before turning it on and grabbing a cup from the locked cabinets. I frowned.

Thalia stirred, her thick eyeliner smudged beneath her eyes. She sat up and yawned. "I'll have some of that, Piper," she slurred, eyes still bleary.

"I never took you as an early riser," I remarked. She rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"Trust me, neither did I until I joined the Hunters. Immortality does wonders for you sleeping schedule, let me tell you. Lots of extra energy," she explained.

"Too bad I like boys and breaking the rules too much," Lou Ellen commented as she strode onto the scene. Her hair was braided and looped in some complicated design, and her henna was still in tact. Her chipped black nails cupped a blue coffee mug as she waited for Piper to finish.

"Yeah, I can see that," Thalia said skeptically, raising an eyebrow at a pale lavender mark behind her ear. Most likely from Connor. Though as to where they'd gone, I had no idea. The bunks weren't exactly private.

Pretty soon, the other counselors were stumbling out of bed, save for Zanna, who grumbled that it was way too early, and rolled over to fall asleep again.

"So," Cassie began, glancing around the front of the RV. "Are we hitting the beach or what?"

"Definitely," Annabeth confirmed as she leaned into Percy's shoulder, snuggling affectionately. Figures. Percy Jackson would never pass up the beach, and neither, I guess, would his girlfriend.

"I'll go get the girls," Thalia announced. "Expect to get your asses kicked in a volleyball match later, by the way." And with that, she was out of the RV and heading towards the silver van parked nearby. Nico's eyes followed her as she walked out.

Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. _Hey, didn't you used to hit on Thalia too?_ Yeah, well, that ended as soon as it began. I mean, my dad had made it pretty clear that Hephaestus kids weren't exactly charming romantics. And I had a bad habit of liking girls out of my league, or otherwise, sworn into an eternal girls club. But the admiration was painted onto Nico's face like it was some sort of billboard. _See that Goth chick? Yeah, I like her,_ it pretty much said. Even with Lou Ellen attempting to set him up with one of her younger sisters, things still didn't work. Too much henna and magic, he'd claimed.

"Well then," Jamie continued, standing up, hands on her hips. "We'd better get going. We want to get a good spot."

Everyone got up and started milling around, and the line into the bathroom was ridiculously long to change. Us guys just grabbed out swimming trunks, pulled the curtains on our bunks shut and climbed in, changing quickly. Jamie emerged from the bathroom in a peachy pink string bikini, a sheer white cover-up pulled on over it, her poker straight sandy hair spilling all over her shoulders. Annabeth slipped inside next. When she came out, let's just say Percy pretty much forgot his own name.

"Stop staring, Seaweed Brain," she told him, her cheeks flushing as she playfully smacked him. She slung her beach bag over her shoulder and propped her sunglasses up on her head.

In fifteen minutes, we were finally ready to go, the girls bikini clad, the guys shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, trying not to make it too obvious that we were checking them out.

The Hunters were waiting, wearing sporty looking silver two pieces with black and white board shorts, Thalia at the head.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Let's go," Jason supplied and we stepped onto the sand. Even though it was early, the sun was hot, and there were small groups of people starting to appear. We claimed a big area with all our towels and bags. Thalia organized the Hunters a few feet away. They kept giving me and the other guys looks like _don't you dare check us out, or you will be kicked into next week._ I didn't doubt it.

Oh, this is gonna be an interesting day.

Later on, after Percy had carried Annabeth into the ocean, bridal style and dunked her before kissing her, and Jamie had slathered on so much tanning oil that the air smelled like bananas and spices, one of the Hunters, a girl names Pheobe, came over and asked us if we were ready for the volleyball game.

"Well, you can't really get ready to get creamed, can you?" she added under her breath, like an afterthought.

"Excuse me, what was that?" Piper asked, leaning forward. Even though she and Jason had been cuddling together the whole time, it was still like we were just friends. I guess most guys would be annoyed when their two best friends became a couple, but it didn't really bother me, to be honest. I was kind of used to it, and they didn't treat me any differently or exclude me all the time.

Pheobe ignored her like the Hunters had for the last three hours. I wondered if it had something to do with the fact that she was a daughter of Aphrodite and therefore unworthy of their attention or something. You could tell that Piper was getting pissed off.

"Why won't you talk to me?" she demanded, getting up and brushing sand of her teal bikini.

"Because love is worthless," Pheobe answered as she walked off to round up the Hunters for the game.

Piper clenched her fists. "What a first class bitch. And the worst part is, I'll probably have to deal with her for my entire life! She's freaking immortal!"

I laughed. When Piper was mad, she usually produced her best punch lines.

"I'm so gonna use that in the future," I assured her.

"Whatever," she huffed. "We just have to beat them. Losing isn't an option, even if your sister hates me for beating her afterwards," she added with a sideways glance at Jason. He shrugged.

"I don't think she'll hate you if you're my girlfriend," he pointed out, but she ignored him, her steely kaleidoscope gaze set on the volleyball court nearby. The Hunters were huddling up, giving our positions.

The other counselors walked over. Cassie rubbed her hands together, her sky blue Nike bathing suit stark against her athlete's tan. "Okay, guys, I prayed to my mom. Let's hope she's listening," she told us. "A victory against the Hunters would be _so_ nice. I need something to rub in their faces next time they visit camp."

"Okay, who wants to be towards the front?" Percy inquired. A few hands shot up. He nodded. "Okay then. Cassie, Butch, Annabeth and I will be in the first front row," he began.

"Wait, what do you mean, first front row?" Jamie asked.

"Only eight at a time on a volleyball court," Annabeth explained. "Well sub in and out so we can be fresh."

Jamie nodded. "I get it."

Percy opened his mouth to continue. "Leo, Piper, Jason and Clarisse in the first back row. Jamie, Nico, Zanna and Will Solace are in back line number two. Stolls, Katie Gardner and Lou Ellen are in the second front line, and Pollux said he wanted to referee, so that's it."

"Hands in," Annabeth prompted, placing her hand in the middle of our huddle. Everyone else piled theirs on top of it, craning to be included. "One…Two…Three, Camp C-H-B!" we cheered before splitting up, the subs drifting off to the sides to wait with the extra Hunters.

The Hunters had the serve first, and Thalia gave us a grin before calling out the 0-0 score as she launched it into the air and over the net. Annabeth reached up and spiked it, and it almost made it to the sand on the other side before a Hunter got to it in time and bumped it back up into the air for her teammate to send over. Jason gave it a good hit to Percy, who in turn sent it back to the Hunters. One of them lunged for it, her fingertips grazing the ball before it hit the ground.

"Whooo!" our team cheered loudly, fist pumping the air triumphantly. Clarisse caught the ball and served, the blue and white striped sphere sailing over the net in a graceful arc that could only come from a practiced player. Thalia hit it full force and it returned to our side. Cassie hit it into the air, but a Hunter smacked it towards the empty space beside Butch. He dove, and missed, the ball bouncing on the ground. The Hunters cheered. Butch glared at them, his rainbow tattoo on his bicep flexed as he clenched and unclenched his fists.

Gods. Who knew supernatural volleyball could be so intense?

It was still 0-0, and it ended when a team reached fifteen and was winning by at least two.

This was going to be a long game.

**I will continued with the volleyball game the next chapter, no worries! I just wanted to drag out the suspension, and I figured some competition between camp and the Hunters would be good since it resembles the game of Capture the Flag they usually have when the Hunters come and visit. There will be some Romans showing up soon, so get ready! (laughs evilly) anyways, please review, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated! Thanks so much for reading!**

**-NotsoSugarQueen**


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N.: Yeah, you guys could probably kill me by now, and I do apologize. I was on my spring break (yeah, it was great) during which I could not use the computer, saw the Host (a movie you should all go see), and had a migraine. It was quite interesting. Anyways, here's the next chapter! Oh, and check out the trailer for Sea of Monsters! Yeah, it's actually happening! (screams hysterically) and it looks like it's going to be way better than the Lightning Thief, since that was just a disappointment. I mean, Annabeth is finally blond! That ****_has_**** to say something. Oh and thank you so much to all of you that reviewed, it gives me all the more reason to keep writing! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: honestly, you should know by now.**

Seven: Annabeth PoV

Volleyball with the Hunters is crazy competitive, even when one of your best friends is on the other team. It's all or nothing.

And then of course, when you mix in some stray Romans that decided to pop in, you go from a mid air Leo that's about to make a perfect spike to a Leo that is face-planted in the sand at the sight of the one girl that clearly has a drastic effect on his ego.

Yep, everyone, say hello to Reyna Vivaldi.

Of course, Hazel and Frank came with her too, but no one face planted at the sight of them.

"Our serve," Thalia demanded, completely oblivious to the fact that some other people just showed up. Jason sent the volleyball over to their side, avoiding Reyna's gaze. Guess someone still feels the guilt. Piper frowns sympathetically. I kind of—okay, I do—feel bad for Reyna. I mean, Piper is just impossible to hate, and she doesn't even have to try to be nice. Whereas if Drew had gotten Jason, things would just be a lot easier for Reyna. I mean, you just call the girl who stole your practically boyfriend a bitch and kick her ass into next week, instead of feeling guilty for how much you really don't like the nice Aphrodite girl who can't help but be pretty and doesn't hate you at all.

Talk about complicated emotions. Good thing I'm a genius and have the ability to interpret them.

One of the Hunters calls out the now 1-0 score (yeah, they have the lead) and the ball sails over the top of the net. Percy lunges forward and bumps it back into the air, sending it back to where it came from. The Hunters strategically set it to one another until a third girl spikes it downwards sharply, leaving me to keep it from the ground. I carefully tap it back over to an empty spot and watch as one of the Hunters tries and fails to keep it from grazing the sand.

"That would be our serve now," Leo calls, trying to recover from his Reyna induced stupor. Thalia sends him a death glare, her electric blue gaze raking over our team with defiance, before tossing the volleyball over to our side. It's Katie's serve now, and I can see Travis trying to sidle up to her, giving her instructions.

"Stoll, I wasn't born yesterday," she snaps. I stifle a laugh. It's kind of ridiculous, the way they act. It's obvious to anyone but them that they like each other, but they're stuck in oblivious-land, convinced that they hate each other.

"Okay, Katie-Kat," he replies, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

Katie glares at him and yells out the tied score before serving the ball. Clearly, Travis didn't need to give her pointers. The serve is flawless.

But the Hunters are pretty good too, of course.

A girl bumps it up into the air as she skids across the ground on her stomach, and her teammate knocks it back over in quick succession. Leo jumps up and hits it, redeeming himself. It hits the ground with a satisfying plunk and we score another point. Our team is dissolved into complete chaos, cheering loudly and drawing stares from other people on the beach. What can I say? Demigods tend to stand out.

"Time out!" Thalia calls. It's more of a demand than a request, coming from her. We nod, and gather at the back of our court to greet the newcomers.

"It's so good to see you!" Hazel squeals happily, smiling as she manages to squish Piper and I into a big bear hug. "It feels like its been forever!"

"Yeah, it does," I agreed. Percy, Jason and Leo are giving Frank pats on the back, but Reyna holds back, surveying the scene.

"So, how are things with Frank?" Piper asked. I slip away, pushing through Nico and Butch to get to the lonely black haired praetor.

"Nice to see you, Rey," I saluted.

Her face cracks a rare smile, the seriousness dissolved. "You too, Annabeth." She reaches out and hugs me. Her muscles are tense, and I can tell she's anxious. Even months after the Giant War, she still wears the hard, determined look on her face. Jason and Piper have been commuting between the two camps regularly to help manage Jason's position as praetor, but Reyna still looks tired and worn out.

"Come on, our team could definitely use your help beating the Hunters," I draw back, grabbing her arm and leading her over to the court as the time out fizzles out. It's back the game. After all, Thalia was never one to waste time.

"Beat some Greek Vestal Virgins?" Reyna scoffs, raising her eyebrows like she's seen way worse. "Please. They'll regret this for the rest of their immortal lives."

"Ready, Rey?" Percy called cheerfully. He serves the ball and it soars over into the hands of the Hunters.

"Jackson, you should know by now. I was born ready," she replied.

You might think I'm worried about them flirting, but trust me, I'm not. Percy and I are the most permanent thing I've ever known. And I guess maybe that doesn't say too much, seeing as to the fact that not a lot of things are permanent in the life of a demigod, but still.

In a matter of minutes, Reyna scores twice. I can tell that Thalia's a little perplexed, but in the back of her mind, she's probably deciding that she'll ask if Reyna's interested in joining the Hunters afterwards. I mean, there was a point in time where I considered it myself. But Percy changed all that. Secretly, I was glad that he hadn't wanted me to join the Hunters back when we were thirteen, and Zoe Nightshade still led them. But I'd never admit it to him, of course. My fatal flaw is hubris, after all.

"This is getting boring," Thalia called.

"Are you surrendering, Pinecone Face?" Percy said with mock surprise.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "You wish Seaweed Brain. Let's call it a tie breaker and relax. Besides, there's supposed to be a beach party at the Dunes Club down the street. I can pull some strings and get us in. It'll be fun. And if you haven't been to a Miami beach party, you haven't lived."

We exchanged glances. "Since we're feeling merciful, I guess that's good enough," I agreed, smirking.

"Watch it, Annie," Thalia warned before leading the Hunters back to their silver van. "I still would've beat you."

"Yeah, Thals, go on thinking that," I replied. She waved her hand in dismissal, rolling her eyes. That was Thalia Grace for you. The girl that never gives up.

I walked back towards our beach set-up, planning on lying down and reading for a little bit when a pair of familiar arms snagged me around the waist, hoisting me up in the air like I was weightless. A pair of lips met my neck, planting light kisses across my collarbone. I squirmed and laughed as my feet touch the ground again. Don't tell anyone, but I'm really ticklish.

And unfortunately for me, Percy's figured it out.

"Now that the volleyball game is over…" he mused, taking my hand in his with practiced ease. "How about we get away from all of that?"

I look up at him. Gods, he's so incredibly handsome. But don't go telling him I said that, because he does not need a boost to his ego. I would never hear the end of it. His skin is permanently tan from the beach, and his green eyes are as brilliant as ever, sharply contrasted by his jet black hair that feels like silk when I run my fingers through it. He leans down and I rise up on tip-toe to meet him halfway as his lips meet mine. The kiss is soft and gentle and slow. My heart is melting through my body, my brain barely capable of coherent thought. Which, for an Athena kid, is usually pretty troublesome. But right now, there's nothing better in the world.

In a split second, I'm being slung over his back, carried towards the ocean.

"Hey!" I exclaimed in surprise, but I really should've known better. See, this is the thing. If I hadn't just been making out with Percy, my brain would've been more active, and this wouldn't have caught me off guard. But kissing Percy temporarily reduces my IQ a lot more than I care to admit.

I'm dunked into the water. I burst through the surface and gasp for air, looking around for Percy Jackson. I sigh, spit water out my mouth. He's probably sneaking up on me right now, underwater, laughing at what he calls my indignant face.

"Percy," I call, raising my eyebrows. "Look, I know you're there. There's no point in pretending—"

I'm jerked underwater again, a bubble expanding around me. Okay, I wasn't expecting that either.

He kisses me again, full force. Not restrained and gentle, like I'm some sort of delicate China doll he doesn't want to break. This is different. It's hot and hungry and desperate. We're standing again now, farther from shore, our heads above the water. Adrenaline explodes and surges outwards in my body, my heart beating a million miles an hour. Percy's hands are on my waist, my arms, my back—mine are on his shoulders, his neck, running through his hair. I've been through a lot in my eighteen years of life, but nothing makes me feel like this. Infinitely alive.

And, suddenly, of course, the bubble is popped.

Because people always seem to find stupid reasons to disrupt important moments of my life.

I try to hide my embarrassment and frustration.

It's Cassie, and you can tell she's trying not to giggle as she calls our names from a few feet away.

"Okay, lovebirds, we're headed back to the RV. We're gonna get cleaned up for the bash tonight. Thalia's persuaded Artemis to give us some fake invites, so it's a yes," she added, before dashing back out of the water.

"Someday, time is just going to freeze and we're going to have at least ten minutes alone," Percy muttered as we trudge back to shore. I plant a quick kiss on his cheek as I hurry onto the sand.

"You'd like that, huh?" I remarked, smirking.

"And you say I'm the one with the ego?" he replies sarcastically. I lean in close, my mouth beside his ear.

"Just you wait, Seaweed Brain. There's a whole party tonight for a distraction," I whisper before drawing back and joining Piper and Lou Ellen as we make our way back to the RV.

Yeah, it's going to be a party all right.

**Cliff hanger! Haha! Anyways, I made this chapter long just for you, so you can thank me later! I made the Thalico light and one-sided at the request of a reviewer (your welcome!). Anyways, there was some Percabeth fluff since they are everyone's favorite couple and I'm going to build on the Tratie and Leyna in the next chapter. Please do review, constructive criticism, ideas and requests are ALWAYS appreciated! Thanks so much for reading!**

**-NotsoSugarQueen**


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N.: Okay, so this might not be the longest chapter ever, since I'm not really supposed to be on the computer now, but since I love you guys so much and I'm a great person, I'm willing to fake working on my Wex essay and instead, I'm updating. And this chapter included some stuff you've all been waiting for… drumroll please…. LEYNA! Yeah, you can thanks me later. You know you love me J Anyways, hopefully you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I really don't have time to say that I don't own PJO.**

Eight: Reyna PoV

Parties with Greek demigods are clearly more out of hand than Roman ones. This I can tell you from up close and personal experiences, seeing as to the fact that in the Legion, girls don't tend to dress up in beachy sundresses over skimpy bikinis and paint their toenails pastel and spritz perfume everywhere until the air seems like it will smell like vanilla cupcakes _forever_.

Okay, so maybe I was being a teensy bit dramatic, but you get my point. Roman girls, unless you're a daughter of Venus (and even then its kind of discourages) are fierce and we don't take crap from anyone. Not that I think any of the girls I was with at the moment, Annabeth especially, would take crap from people. I mean, Annabeth would just straight up gut them, Lou Ellen would snap her fingers and your eyebrows would be shaved off for a week, and you could say _Hello, social suicide_, if you pissed Piper off enough. Katie… she could yell. I mean, she's had a lot of practice, from what I've heard.

So anyways, when I was seated in a chair in front of the RV's bathroom mirror and attacked with a flurry of brushes, powder, mascara wands and nail polish, I was kind of surprised. Hazel was receiving the same treatment on the other side of the room.

It Annabeth was doing my make-up, and Lou Ellen was handling my nails. I resisted the urge to giggle every time she reached a ticklish spot on my feet so I wouldn't mess up the polish.

"Are you guys done yet?" I asked impatiently, fidgeting.

"Keep still!" Lou Ellen chided.

"Yeah, besides, you still have to get dressed afterwards," Annabeth pointed out. "We have some things picked out for you, no worries."

"Guys, its not like I'm trying to impress anyone," I protested, shooting a wary glance at Piper. She was Jason's girlfriend, after all, and I did not want to give her the impression that I was still hung up on him. I mean, getting your heart trampled and then shoved back in your face is no small ordeal, but no one needed to know that. I was Reyna Vivaldi. Picture perfect praetor girl. Not the girl that screws up and winds up without the guy she wanted, and was left behind in the dust. No way. If anything, I was the girl that didn't care. Who says you can't be invincible?

Even though deep down, I did care.

A lot.

I sighed as Annabeth drew back, and Lou Ellen capped the nail polish. I was handed a mirror and I gazed at my reflection.

My nearly black eyes were accentuated by thick, dark lashes, making them wide and sparkly and almost doll-like in perfection. My lips were a plain, peachy nude color that shimmered slightly, and my lightly freckles cheeks were dusted with a light blush. It wasn't much, but I thought I'd woken up on some different planet. I mean, by no means was I ugly, but I'd always been the girl who had more important things to do than beautify herself. Bravery and determination had been my make-up for as long as I could remember.

My nails and toenails were painted in a light, piggy bank pink that was unlike me but looked nice and neat. I actually kind of liked it. It wasn't a big change from my usual plain clear coat, which I didn't mind. My hair was out of it's normal French braid and down and silky and lush, falling in beach waves over my shoulders.

"You can thank us later," Lou Ellen said, smiling with satisfaction as she helped me up. "Careful, it's a quick dry, but you still shouldn't take chances." Piper was still doing Hazel's hair in the corner as we exited the room.

She handed me a dark purple bikini and a pale peach strapless sundress, and I exchanged my shorts and Camp Jupiter tee shirt for them. Personally, I thought my athletic body looked—well, too athletic, but Lou Ellen nodded.

"The boys are gonna be all over you," she warned. "Even Stud."

I smiled weakly, not really knowing who Stud was. "I think I can handle it."

She shook her head. "Rey, I'm not worried that you can't handle it. I'm worried that _they _can't handle you."

I laughed. "No worries, Lou Ellen. I promise not to hurt anyone."

She nodded in approval. "Good then. Grab your shoes and let's go. Piper's probably done with Hazel's hair by now."

Piper was indeed done with Hazel's hair, and it looked amazing. It was still curly and coffee brown, but with intricate braids looping here and there and everywhere, and her gold eyes were lined with sparkly gold liquid eyeliner, her lips dark with brown lipstick. She was handed a black and white tribal patterned bandeau style bathingsuit, which she slid into easily, her tiny frame birdlike. She was fourteen, and younger than all of us by far.

"We're all ready," Piper announced, ushering us from the bathroom and outside. The guys and Hunters were waiting, one of them having an arm wrestling contest with Butch. It was hard to see who was winning, but they both looked pretty strained. Butch's rainbow tattoo stood out against his bicep in the dim light.

The girl's muscle bulged as she slammed his hand down against the picnic table they were sitting at. The Hunters whooped with satisfaction, and the campers sighed. Butch frowned.

"Come on, guys," Thalia said, standing up. "A wild underage party is waiting."

We followed her down the beach, along a boardwalk, towards a path that led to the other side of the dunes. The Hunters chattered noisily, laughing and high fiving the girl for beating Butch. None of them were dressed up for the party, instead wearing simple bathing suits with jean shorts over them. With the exception of Thalia, of course. She still had her signature black eyeliner and fingers were lined with silver rings, her shirt a black cutoff tee that read: _Death to Barbie._ Annabeth and Percy were holding hands, as well as Piper and Jason, and one of the Stolls had his arm around Lou Ellen's waist.

_Couples_, I thought, my muscles tensing up. _Something I will probably never be a part of._

Thalia reached a beachy looking gate and a shack that looked a lot like a ticket booth. She leaned into the window and whispered something into to guy's ear. He nodded quickly, bowing his head as we stepped through. Several feet away, there was a massive, imposing beach house and deck twinkling with lights. Music buzzed through the air, and vibrated in my bones. Clusters of teenagers bumbled past, several of them clearly tipsy.

"Vamanos, chicas!" Thalia called, gesturing for us to follow her.

"You know that that conjugation isn't exactly correct right?" the Latino boy, Leo, called to her. He was a few feet behind me, talking to the other Stoll and Butch in a conversation involving maple syrup, feathers and toilet paper. The origin of which I wasn't sure I really wanted to know, to be honest.

"Whatever, Valdez," Thalia scoffed from the front of the group. Several Hunters shot warning glances at Leo, but he didn't seem to notice. His gaze met mine, nodding slightly in faint acknowledgement before he looked away, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed thickly.

He was so familiar. I couldn't place it. And not just like I'd seen him around camp before, I had. There was something else… I racked my brain.

Then it hit me.

Oh, right. Leo Valdez. The guy who'd made his great debut to Camp Jupiter by getting possessed by an Eidolon and wreaking destruction on the Field of Mars and the rest of New Rome. Not exactly something that calls for major supporters.

I wondered briefly if he remembered.

We stepped onto the deck, and Percy immediately twirled Annabeth around, hugging her close and planting a light kiss on the tip of her nose. She laughed, her blond hair dark gold in the sun's setting rays. Lou Ellen was dancing with the Stoll, her hips twirling suggestively. No Shame was her middle name, that's for sure. Piper and Jason were doing some kind of cheesy old-fashioned jive, their faces smiling and happy.

There was a point in my life where I would have given anything for that girl to be me. But maybe my mother was right. Maybe time made burdens easier to bear. After all, I was getting used to the fact that I was probably going to end up being the girl who dedicated her life to being praetor, who gave the Legion her everything, and kept nothing for herself. The Fates were cruel. I'd thought Jason was something that could be mine—but I had been proven wrong, obviously.

The Hunters swept onto the dance floor forming a Congo line and parading around, laughing loudly, sloshing their drinks in their expensive looking glasses. I smirked in amusement. If you think about it, it can be glass or crystal, its still pretty much a Red Solo cup at heart.

"Come on, they can't have all the fun," Cassie said, grabbing me and Zanna by the arms and dragging us into the throng of the people. Jamie was busy chatting up the bartender, and Travis and Katie were bickering playfully in the corner, Travis slowly sidling up beside her.

"Ten bucks that they end up making out sometime tonight," Zanna suggested.

"Twenty that they get together by the end of the week," I added. I'd never been a gambler, but what the hell?

Cassie shrugged. "Okay, you guys are in. Personally, I think the sexual tension is a little too tense at the moment for any coupling to happen, but you never know."

I grinned. Maybe this party would be more fun than I'd thought.

"Would you ladies like something to drink?" Leo asked politely, flashing a jokester grin at us.

Cassie rolled her eyes. "No need to act like such a ladies' man, Leo. But, yeah, I'll have one."

"No thanks. I'll get my own," Zanna said, cocking an eyebrow suspiciously at him. I glanced at him, examining him carefully out of the corner of my eye as he insisted that nothing bad would happen to her if she drank it.

"I'll go with him to make sure he doesn't spike it, Zanna," I told her. "Be right back." Not pausing to see if he followed, I slipped away, weaving through the crowd towards the bar. I leaned up against the cool wood, examining the spotlighted menu carefully. I'd never been a huge partier, and I'd only tried wine once or twice. Never beer, and I wasn't stupid enough to try shots. Dakotah had advised against it, considering I might be a lightweight. And hearing about Katie's spectacle earlier in the week didn't make me any more eager to try it.

"Beer?" Leo confirmed.

"Yeah," I answered coolly.

He turned to the bartender to order, his face slightly blanched. He shifted and fidgeted, signature traits of demigod ADHD.

"Valdez, I'm not going to bite your head off," I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

"Well considering you're supposed to be Big Bad Reyna the Praetor Girl, I wouldn't be surprised," he remarked, handing me a cup. I sipped it carefully, the unfamiliar liquid giving me a gentle buzz. "But then again, I was never a pro at reading people, so I could be wrong. Tell me, do you have a hobby of going crazy once you're out of the public eye?"

I laughed nervously. His black hair was thick and curly, spiraling at the temples in a cute, rumpled sort of way. My cheeks flushed, whether from the acquired alcohol or his disarming joking grin I wasn't sure. I kind of hoped it was the beer.

"I did kind of blow up Camp Jupiter, after all," he added, shrugging. "I really am sorry about that, by the way."

"You'd think I was going to put you on trial or something. Am I really that scary?" I inquired, swirling my drink around as we headed back to Cassie and Zanna with their drinks.

"Maybe its one of those things that kind of wears off. A tough first impression. I mean, you look like you could kick some serious monster ass, and maybe mine, but now I'm not so sure. Of course, your first impression of me is probably not the repair boy everyone else sees me as. I bet it's a lot more screwed up," he replied, flashing another grin at me. A shiver shot up my spine, despite the warm night.

"I guess we'll have to find out," I said, shrugging.

"Be the first to decipher the girl behind the mask?" Leo clarified sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. "I thought we understood each other! I'm not an emotional person. Too sticky." He grinned absentmindedly against the rim of his cup.

I giggled, and Reyna Vivaldi does not giggle. Now I'm definitely sure I'm a lightweight. Right?

"I definitely agree," I admitted, pursing my lips. We were approaching potential ground for touchy subjects. Also known as Jason and Piper and love in general. Not something that brought out the chatty girl in me.

"It's hard to watch them, isn't it?" he asked, startling me back out of my reverie.

"What do you mean?" I countered, dodging the question. At some point, a lump had lodged itself in my throat. I knew exactly what he was talking about, and I silently thanked the gods that I was such a good liar.

"Them. Couples. Lovey-dovey business," he explained, giving me a pointed look. "You don't have to pretend around me. I'm just the repair boy."

The way he said it deflated my urge to keep up the act, to remain calm and perfect and pretty and responsible. It was like a balloon had popped in my chest. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"It is," I said softly.

"At least we can be seventh wheels together," he said, raising his nearly empty cup in a toast. "If that's okay."

"Yeah," I agreed, the corners of my mouth quirking upwards into solemn smile. "This is the first time we've really talked, and we've known each other for a year," I realized.

"Yeah," he said, meeting my gaze, unafraid, his face graced once again by that unsettling grin that caused my stomach to tie itself in knots. "That's what happens when a guy like me realizes that a girl like you won't rip his head off if he gets too close."

"Hey!" I protested, giving him a playful shove.

"What can I say? It had to happen at some point. The Valdez in me is just irresistible," he commented, smirking. I rolled my eyes. He was so much different than Jason. And maybe that was a good thing, I decided.

"So is it going to be the last time?" he asks after a few seconds.

"You so hope so, Valdez," I said, and without thinking, I leaned forward and kissed my lightly on the cheek, my lips just brushing his soft skin.

What can I say? Alcohol makes me do some crazy things.

**Good? Bad? Mediocre? I didn't want it to be like, OMG! They're already in love even though they're still getting to know each other. That way there will be more room for some humor, and I can do some character building and stuff too. They can be the awkward lovable Leyna that they are! Next chapter I'm planning a few pranks between the Hunters and Campers, because honestly it wouldn't be a complete visit without it! Get ready! And if you have some suggestions on perspectives you'd like to see done, just PM me or mention it in a review. And I'm also releasing a new story called: ****What to Expect When You're Expecting: Demigod Edition****. It will include all of our favorite couples as they tackle raising a family, with plenty of humor and romance on the side! And yeah, I did get the idea from the movie, but the plot will not be the same. Just the idea.**

**-NotsoSugarQueen**


	9. Chapter 9

**Yeah, you guys are probably pissed at me. I haven't updated in two weeks… or maybe a little longer? So, so sorry, but as promised, the story shall go on, no worries… and there will be drama this chapter, no worries. We're revisiting Tratie, much to your pleasure, I'm sure. So, no more dawdling, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: no, I don't own PJO.**

Nine: Katie PoV

My eyelids flutter open. I have a terrible headache. There's sunlight flooding the bunk on the RV, and a pair of muscular arms around me, keeping me well contained, close to someone's warm bare skin. I sit up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes before I realize that, yeah, I'm practically naked, in only a deep green bra I bought at Victoria's Secret earlier this year and a pair of black silky cheekster panties.

I'm wide awake now. I turn and glance over my shoulder at the other person in bed, and when I see who it is, I feel a cross between straight out fainting with embarrassment or throwing up. Or leaning down and kissing him right on the mouth, because in the early morning, he looks sexy and rumpled and utterly kissable.

Yeah, I'm not quite sure what happened last night, but somehow I ended up in bed with Travis Stoll.

Travis freaking Stoll.

The son of Hermes that I hate oh-so-much.

He's bare-chested, and I see that his jeans had obviously been sloughed off at some point, because they're at the foot of the bed, peeking out from under the comforter that we're snuggled under.

Oh my gods. Did I sleep with him?

Panicked adrenaline starts to rush through me, but before I can jump out of the bed, Travis stirs, his arm reaching up and snagging me around my waist, tugging me down towards him again.

"Katie-Kat," he murmurs sleepily, his eyes still unopened. He smells like soap and something smoky, like a campfire. Our bodies are close, and I can feel his warm breath in small puffs on the back of my neck.

"Travis," I whisper, poking him. He doesn't budge. I resist the urge to sigh. "_Stoll."_

He mumbles something before opening his eyes, rubbing the sleep from them and yawning. They're so blue. How could I have never noticed that before?

"Stoll," I repeat, a little impatiently. "I'd kind of appreciate it if you let me go."

Finally, he must've noticed the fact that we're both practically naked, curled up in bed together, and his arms are wrapped firmly around me like he'd die if he let me go. He releases me like I'm toxic and sits bolt upright, eyes wide.

"Holy shit," he exclaimed.

I roll my eyes. "You think?" Travis's eyes rake over me, pausing for a second too long on my C-cup chest for my liking, I tug the covers from him and cross my arms over my chest, before uncrossing them again because it makes my C-cup look like a D. "Don't leer at me, Travis Stoll."

"Sorry," he apologized, not sounding too sorry at all. "Jesus, I have a killer headache."

"Same," I told him, before an idea hits me. "We were drunk. At the party. This is a stupid drunk mistake."

"What happened, exactly?" he asked, grabbing his jeans from the bottom of the bed.

I rolled my eyes again. "Gee, Stoll, we're cuddled up, wearing nothing but underwear, in bed together. What do you think happened?"

"Oh," he remarked, nodding. "Were you a virgin?"

"No!" I said hotly, my face blushing. I wasn't, in fact, thanks to my good for nothing mortal ex-boyfriend Kyle. But Travis did not need to know the details.

"Good. Now I don't feel so bad, since I didn't deflower you," he said, yawning again. I groaned and slapped my hand over my eyes.

"You should still feel sorry, Stoll," I told him fiercely, giving him a shove. "Especially now that you made that unorthodox comment."

"You're not even Catholic, Gardner," he sighed.

"Whatever. That does not give you the right to sleep with me and act like it was not big deal. It is. It's a monstrous mistake, and should never have happened. If this gets out… you'll probably use it as blackmail material, now that I think of it…" I trailed off, swearing under my breath. "How did this happen?"

Travis laughs. "Well, obviously, we had too much to drink, thought we looked hot to each other and got carried away."

"For the record, Stoll, I do not think you're hot," I pointed out sharply.

The curtain that's pulled across the bunk is pulled aside, and Leo pokes his head down from above, a mischievous grin plastered on his face, a tape recorder in his hand. "You know, if you lovebirds would stop arguing about that fact that that you hooked up, we could all have slept in a little longer."

My face feels like its on fire, and I'm pretty sure it looks like it. Travis shrugs and smiles his annoying _I think I'm amazing_ smirk. I'm tempted to slap him, except for the fact that we have gathered an audience of pretty much the whole bus, save Clovis, who's snoring away.

Leo looks at them expectantly. "Well, people pay up!"

Half the people on the bus sigh, forking over ten dollar bills to his outstretched hand. Leo fingers the stack of bills, smiling still.

Now I'm humiliated. "You guys bet on whether or not we'd end up accidentally having sex?"

Leo laughed. "You have no idea what goes on, Katie Gardner. In fact, the two of you don't really know what happened. You'll never know. Trust me, there's more to come, ask anyone."

My stomach flip-flops. Not even considering the fact that everyone will see half of my bare butt, I jump out of the bunk and make a run for the bathroom.

Distantly, I can hear laughter.

I am going to kill Travis Stoll before this roadtrip is over. And maybe, for good measure, Leo Valdez, too.

**Oooooh! And the pot has been stirred. Well, whipped, more likely. That was an awfully lot of very intense Tratie! And if you're wondering, no I WILL NOT EVER WRITE SMUTTINESS! This was aftermath, so it doesn't count. Nothing closer than this and some make-out scenes will be told. I'm a teenager, but still. Anyways, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, and I apologize again for not updating immediately. I promise to be better in the future, and my newest story will be updated within the next week, but I do have a busy weekend, so I'm thinking Tuesday will probably be when the next chapter is released. As always, please review, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated, and if you want to see something happen, just say so, and I'll try my best to work it into the plot. Until next time!**

**-NotsoSugarQueen**


	10. Chapter 10

**A.N. So yeah… umm… the whole next update on Tuesday thing never happened, did it? I'm really, really sorry. Like seriously. For the first time ever, I got reviews like a week after the last chapter begging me to update soon! And, I kind of procrastinated. So, I'm cramming this in between studying for my finals, because I feel like you guys deserve a great, action packed chapter of fanfiction. (Especially if you are, like me, studying for an English final tomorrow). So here it comes! Enjoy!**

Ten: Lou Ellen PoV

Honestly, even with two days having passed, the whole Katie-and-Travis scandal hasn't died down.

And, much to their dismay, it probably never will. I mean, when you have Connor and Leo recording it, keeping it locked up for future blackmail purposes, its kind of hard to forget. And when you can't remember anything from the night before because you were so completely wasted, that makes it pretty difficult to deny anything.

Basically, they were screwed.

Katie a little more than Travis, I think, because even though she wasn't a virgin (according to her) she still has a good girl reputation. And good girls like Katie Gardner tend to avoid screwing around with playboys like Travis Stoll.

And if you're thinking about asking, no, I don't really qualify as a good girl. I kind of straddle the line between good and bad, depending on your opinion. I mean, I pull pretty awesome pranks on people I don't like, do favors for people I do, and get around. I break the rules, and I don't get caught.

Most of the time, anyways.

We're nearly half way across the country, somewhere in the middle of Louisiana. And I know that there's always parties there. But when the subject of stopping in downtown New Orleans came up, Hazel practically tossed her cookies. So we decided to pass.

Currently, we were gathered around the living space, lounging on couches, Annabeth and Percy so close you can barely tell where one ended and the other began, Piper sitting across Jason's lap, her head on his shoulder, me laying across Connor and Nico, my head deposited in Connor's lap.

"It's so freaking hot," Hazel complained, fanning herself with her hands. Her and Frank were sitting side by side, holding hands. Maybe Romans are more touchy about relationships then Greeks.

"You're telling me," Katie snapped. She still has a bit of a sunburn across her cheeks from Miami, but it doesn't hide the irritated flush that heats up her neck every time she meets Travis's gaze across the room. They're as far away from each other as possible, like an atomic bomb waiting to blow. One day, they're going to wake up and realize that they're in love with each other. Frankly, I'm getting a little impatient, and I'm not the only one.

That's how they ended up in bed next to each other. Unless they hooked up on the beach at the party, there was no action past some seriously passionate, drunk kissing before we left. Once they fell asleep… well, with some of Piper's charmspeak convincing them to sleepwalk, we managed to get them in bed together in nothing but their skivvies. The whole point was to push them together. It ended up doing the opposite, which is obvious by the way they're both sitting, uptight and deliberately looking anywhere but at each other.

But we're not telling _them_.

I sighed. "I'm bored," I remarked. "Let's do something fun."

"Like what?" Leo answered from the driver's seat. "I'm always up for fun." Everyone on the bus groaned, except for maybe Travis and Connor. After all, the three of them make up the triple threat of pranksters, joined occasionally by me. Their idea of fun was a lot different than the general public's.

"Well, we've already played strip poker, Truth or Dare is so yesterday, and Spin the Bottle isn't really an option, seeing as to the fact that half the people here are in a relationship," Zanna told us skeptically.

"You guys are boring," Reyna interrupted from her perch beside Leo. I swear, something must've happened between those two at the party. Otherwise, they wouldn't look at each other the way they look at each other when one of them isn't paying attention, which is kind of cute. According to Piper and Cassie, anyways. But I'm glad for Reyna. She deserves something good out of the Giant War. I mean, talk about baggage. It's not everyday you fall in love with your co-praetor, he disappears and returns suddenly with a pretty girlfriend, and doesn't even realize what he did wrong. Not that any of that's anyone's fault but Hera's, and sadly, you can't really get revenge on a goddess. It never turns out well.

"And you have a good suggestion? Since when does Miss _Reina_ play games?" Leo asked, mock-horrified.

Reyna gave him a look and a half smile before turning back to us. "Have any of you guys ever heard of a prank war?"

I swear, every living human being in the RV with a single brain cell had to restrain themselves from screaming: _NO! NOT HAPPENING!_ Instead, we settled for a chorus of voices that all said something along the lines of:

"What the hell are you thinking?"

Of course, the Stolls and Leo are getting these mischievous looks on their faces, the gears inside their heads already turning with possible pranks.

"Actually…" I began, contemplating the potential pranks I could pull and the rules we could lay down so that no one ended up with permanently pink hair or something that made you want to fall over and die of a mixture of embarrassment and anger. "That's kind of a good idea. I'm in."

"Are you insane?" Katie protested. "You're setting yourself up to get… well, to get your hair dyed or your sheets filled with mud or your toothpaste spiked with Hot Sauce?"

"Katie, don't forget, I can also prank them back," I pointed out, raising my eyebrows in an expression that read: _if anyone dares to invoke the wrath of Hecate._

I smiled when I caught Cassie flinching.

"We could do teams," Reyna suggested. "Boys against girls, pick names out of a hat…"

"I vote Battle of the Sexes!" Annabeth crowed. Percy gave her an offended look. She laughed and kissed his cheek. "Look, Seaweed Brain, you know I love you, but there are many ways of showing my affection. Some of them being less pleasant than others." She flashed him smile and he shook his head.

"Just wait…" he told her before clearing his breath and turning to us. "Sounds fun. We can set a deadline… two weeks sounds good enough, but we'll probably have to stop frequently to get supplies for pranks. The first team to surrender… well, we can think of a good punishment for them when it happens. And if both teams survive until the deadline, we call it a draw."

"And no permanently damaging anyone's appearances. Temporary hair and skin dye only," Annabeth clarified, casting a pointed look in the Stolls direction. "And let's try not to destroy the RV while we're at it. Getting stranded in the middle of the U.S. does not sound too fun to me."

"Sounds good to me," I agreed. "Everyone in?" I reached forward and put my hand in. One by one, the others added their hands, or in Leo's case, Buford the II added a table leg. Finally it was just Katie left.

"Guys…" she stalled, pouting.

"Don't be a baby, Gardner," Travis teased, and Katie glared.

"I would watch my back if I were you, Stoll," she warned, reluctantly placing her hand it.

"Official pranking begins tomorrow at noon," I established. The others nodded. "One…two… three… Let the Prank War begin! May the superior sex win!"

All I can say is: watch out boys. Females make pretty fierce enemies.

**Good? I wrote it extra long, just for you guys J Hopefully you enjoyed it. The next chapter will begin the next day at noon, and I'll let you guys decide if it should be from a girl or boys' perspective. You guys have been so supportive of this story, that you deserve to have some weight on decisions. Anyways, I have some prank ideas, no worries, but if you want a particular prank to be pulled, just mention it in a review or PM me! Thanks so much for reading, it means a lot! Love you all!**

**-xoxo, NotsoSugarQueen**


	11. Chapter 11

**A.N. ****Oh my God! I'm so sorry that I uploaded the wrong chapter originally! That was probably one of the most panicked and embarrassing moments of my life! I got a three or four confused reviews and I was like, what the heck? And then I realized that I'd uploaded chapter 10 all over again! My mistake, and I apologize for it! So here's the real chapter eleven!... ** I'm back! So there's not a lot to say, except for the usual, that yeah, this is an update, and yeah, the Prank War is in session! Get ready… get set… GO!

**Disclaimer: I swear if I have to say it one more time, I might have to hurt someone.**

Eleven: Connor PoV

Don't get me wrong. I love Prank Wars. I excel at them. I mean, I'm Connor freaking Stoll. I'm like, the unofficial king of these things.

But when I woke up after sleeping in from our poker match that morning to find that I was in the middle of a Tabasco sauce facial… I changed my mind.

My face felt like it was on fire. I jumped up, ignoring the fact that I was wearing just a pair of Batman boxers and yelled, scrambling to get to the bathroom.

I could hear the girls giggling as I stumbled, squinting. The sauce leaked into the corner of my eye and I swore loudly. Mental note: hot sauce is probably lethal when used in excessive quantities.

Once I got the crap off my face, I returned to the bunks, sporting some seriously red cheeks, my eyes puffy and swollen from irritation like I'd been punched.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one, judging by the other guys faces, with sunburn like coloring in a neat face mask pattern. We looked like we'd been mauled by hornets, and it put a serious damper on my playboy looks.

The girls were huddled at the front, lounging over the couches with pleased looks on their faces, casting us smug smiles every time we exchanged looks.

"Man, we need to kill it," Nico muttered. "Italians don't get sunburned for a reason."

"Well, I got a plan," I said, leaning forward and rubbing my hands together.

"Whatever it is, it better be good," Butch warned.

"Who cares? I'm in. This shit is real," Travis scoffed.

"Well, first off, we'll need to go shopping," I announced, a smirk plastering itself on my face as I began to explain.

Five hours later, everything was in place. To the extent of my knowledge, girl's cared a lot about their appearances. Well, with a few exceptions. (Cough, Clarisse, Cough). So taking a little detour to a local CVS while the girls hit the grocery store on our way to St. Louis was definitely worth it, even if we had some trouble with the whole you-can't-really-pay-with-drachmas sort of thing.

"You're sure this is going to work?" Nico asked skeptically.

"Please. It might take overnight because their hair needs to dry, but trust me, they'll be waking up with hair all shades of the rainbow," I assured him. Along with mixing their personal shampoo and conditioners with varied temporary hair dyes, their foundation (at least, that's what Travis claimed it was called) had been spiked with Habanero pepper juice, their lip-gloss had been replaced with glue, and toothpaste was spiked. Let's just say that us guys might be put off for a few days until the prank wore off.

"Who has first watch?" Percy asked.

"Me," Butch offered. "Leo can take last so he can manage the cameras."

"Dude, this is going to be first class blackmail material," my brother remarked, his eyes lighting up as the gears in his head started turning with the endless possibilities.

The girls knew something was up. Their guards were up, and they refused to get too close, claiming one of the couches as theirs and only socializing when absolutely necessary. I could tell that Percy and Jason weren't too ecstatic when it came to no make-out sessions with their girlfriends. Hell, I didn't want to admit how much I wanted to kiss Lou Ellen, among other things. But my male ego was used to this sort of thing. When it came down to it, bros before hoes.

"See you on the other side, guys," I said before tucking in to my bed to discover that, for some strange reason, the end of my mattress was wet and gooey.

I pushed the covers back, momentarily panicked before I realized that it was just mud. And a whole lot of it too.

"Crap," I muttered, tearing the sheets of my bed and tossing them in the hamper at the end of the aisle. It wasn't long before all the other sheets from the guys' side joined them there.

Whatever. I could deal with a silly, weak prank like that. In the morning, it would all be worthwhile. I curled up with my pillow sulkily before sticking my iPod headphones in and pressing the play button, falling asleep to some hardcore Jay-Z.

I was awakened by a scream.

At first, I momentarily forgot about the prank, and assumed we were being attacked by some monster, judging by the wails of horror coming from the bathroom. But then I spotted Leo rolling on the floor laughing his ass off, managing to catch the whole thing on tape and I remembered.

I stifled my laugh and hurried down the hall to see who it was that had woken up first.

It was Katie. And man did she look pissed. She hadn't gotten to the toothpaste or make-up yet, but the hair was definitely enough to tick her off. Her hair was no longer its usual dark chocolate brown; instead it was bright green, to match her eyes. But I don't think the possibility of color coordination made it any better, judging by her expression.

"Leo Valdez!" she screamed, tackling him to the floor, attempting to grab at the camera.

"No way, miss," Travis told her, holding her off. "That is a very valuable piece of blackmail material. We cannot let you get ahold of that."

"Stoll," she shrieked, stomping down on his foot, and for good measure, spitting in his face. My brother was probably thanking the gods that she hadn't brushed her teeth yet. Or then he would've had some issues. Our faces were still suffering from redness and a tingling sensation, since the Tabasco sauce had managed to sink into our pores. "I can't believe I hooked up with you, you worthless piece of Hermes trash!"

Travis turned a shade redder at the mention of the drunken mistake. Or, the drunken mistake that they still thought they had made. It had been rigged, but we weren't telling them that. The Aphrodite Cabin had been on my case forever about getting them together, and man was it hard. Not that their flirty arguments didn't get on my nerves. I mean, seriously. They say love is blind, but I think they can't see, hear or feel anything, because they're still in that awkward stage of denial. It's starting to make the Aphrodite Cabin mad, and that's a bad thing. Trust me, I don't even like to go within ten feet of that place. It reeks like designer perfume and is dangerously pink. Now, the girls on the other hand… they're a different story.

"This better not be permanent!" she continued threateningly.

"I dunno," I said, shrugging, doing my best to keep a smirk off my face. "I didn't really read that far on the package. Think of it as a wait and see."

"I swear, I'm going to kill you," she muttered.

And then I heard screams from another bunk. Clarisse jumped down and it was all I could do not to crack up. Clarisse has always been that chick that would ride a motorcycle and kick your ass is you gave her an opportunity, but with her now bubblegum pink hair… it kind of took an edge off her intimidation tactic.

"You freaks!" she yelled. "I was going to IM Chris tonight, but now I can't because of _you_!"

"Oh, Clarisse actually cares about what she looks like?" Leo inquired, adjusting the camera's view to catch her reaction.

"Sorry, I guess we didn't realize," I added.

"Listen, punks, you better watch it," she warned with her signature death stare, shaking her head and stalking past us into the showers.

"It won't come out," Nico called.

"I'll get it out, punk!" she snapped.

"Where's the coffee?" Lou Ellen asked in her sleepy voice that never failed to make me think slighting more than PG rated thoughts. She had slid out of her bunk below Katie's and was wearing an oversized slate gray long sleeved tee shirt, her usually braided hair a mess of purple waves.

"Uh, you okay?" Butch asked.

"Of course I am. After all, purple has always been a great color for me, and I've been meaning to try it," she said, shrugging. "Besides, boys, you're going to have to do better than that to impress _me_." She flashed me her teasing smile before turning to walk towards the kitchenette, her legs looking impossibly long.

"Man, you're so whipped," Frank snorted.

I glared.

"Being whipped isn't such a bad thing," Percy argued.

"Seaweed Brain, when you just died your girlfriend's hair blue, it might not be so good," Annabeth pointed out, poking her head out of her top bunk. "Especially when you can't resist the girl that's going to get revenge on you."

Percy raised his hands. "Hey, what can I say? It is my favorite color, and it doesn't look half bad on you, Wise Girl."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Just beware boys. We still have a week and a half to go."

I was starting to consider taking them more seriously. I mean, Katie and Clarisse's reactions had been priceless, and Annabeth, however calm she seemed, was definitely not pleased. And there was still the girls who were sleeping, unaware of the bad hair day that awaited them.

And we they hadn't even brushed their teeth yet…

**Yay! So I'm back, woohoo! Thanks to a special request by ****pjo-guardgeek 8****, there will be some more pranks involving appearances in the next chapter. And let's just say that combined with the genius idea of ****chocolatechipmunk****, things will be heating up. And how long can they keep up this whole hook-up strike? Someone's got to cave… So again, I apologize for the super long delay. I've been on Wattpad recently (my username is ****hinice2meetu2****, if you care to check it out) and an original story of my own offline that I'm considering sending to a publisher after I complete it and proofread it. Would you guys read it? It's a similar teen fiction/romance/fantasy blend, and my writing style from first person is the same as my fanfictions. Just wondering. Anyways, my sincerest apologies, I feel really guilty about ignoring this story for the longest time, but now I'm back on track and newly refreshed with tons of ideas for plotlines. They are heading to a city that a few of you requested… and for those who don't know, you'll have to wait and see! Thanks so much for reading, please review is you have more requests as far as pranks and cities go. For all you Jasper fans, there will be some lovey doveyness in the next chapter, as well as a returning favorite of mine… LEYNA! Are you excited? Cause I am! You're all kings and queens, sugary or not, and you've all been super supportive of my writing, and that means a lot. Like, you have no idea. Love you all forever and ever!**

**Xoxo-NotsoSugarQueen**


	12. Chapter 12

**A.N.: Okay, so since I majorly messed up yesterday and some of you might not have realized that I fixed the update mix-up (I'm so sorry about that), I'm giving you all a special treat and updating again because you deserve it. I felt totally bad when a few fabulous first responders reviewed and where like: ****_Ummm… excuse me, but chapter 10 and chapter 11 are the same!_**** And it's really thanks to them that I noticed it so soon and was able to fix it. So really, they saved your day, not me. Anyways, here's a twelfth chappie for you!**

**Disclaimer: if I owned PJO, would I be wasting time saying I didn't?**

Twelve: Piper's PoV

Okay, so I was more mad about the fact that my hair was now fire engine red (not a good color for Cherokee complexion, mind you) than I wanted to admit. It made me look pasty, and as a naturally tanned person, I was not accustomed to that.

But I made a habit of seeming as anti-Drew as possible, so I didn't freak out.

Well, okay, I did kind of have a panic attack, but it was nowhere near as bad as Katie and Cassie's, and it didn't include half as many death threats.

Because one of the things I've learned in my sixteen years of life is that when people knock you down, you just have to get back up and make them eat it.

In short, get revenge.

So that was how I ended up in some Rite Aid in a small town somewhere in Mississippi with Annabeth, Katie and Lou Ellen, stock piling ammo for the prank we would pull tonight. Cassie and Clarisse were nextdoor at Home Depot, purchasing the many rolls of duck tape we required to tape the boys to the roof of the RV. Because as mad as I was for the compromised toiletries, (we found out about the toothpaste and foundation soon enough), I actually didn't want to kill my boyfriend. After all, he was way too sweet and handsome and heroic to deserve that level of punishment.

So we were settling for old-fashioned public humiliation of their delicate male egos via Extreme Makeover Interventions, Beauty Queen style. It was hard to keep myself from smiling evilly just thinking about it.

"Got it!" Annabeth cheered triumphantly, hurrying over from the pharmacy to pick up the bottles of sleeping pills we'd ordered.

I grinned. "Great. We're almost done over here, but I'm thinking we should get a more glamorous shade of eye shadow to really piss them off. Gold or silver?" I held up two rivaling shades of baked shimmer shadow palettes.

"We might as well get both, just so we don't run out. Besides, I'll totally use the extra gold if we have leftovers," Lou Ellen decided. "I picked up five bottles of black liquid eyeliner. I think that should be enough to give them each sufficient cat eyes, don't you think?"

"Yeah, that should be enough. And I have the red lipstick in here, and the blush has already been picked out. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm just gonna buy a cheap brush set. I don't really want to use my stuff on them," I added, wrinkling my nose. Boys, however handsome, had a slightly varied sense of good hygiene in comparison to girls.

"Hey, what about nail polish? I mean, they could all use a good manicure," Annabeth suggested, her gaze shifting to the shelves stacked with the new Essie summer collection behind me.

"Girl after my own heart," Lou Ellen remarked, snatching a bottle of each color. "Plus, I'm loving this lilac color. I get dibs on it when we're done."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and checked her cell. "Gods, we should get going. We told Clarisse and Cassie that we'd meet them at the front of Home Depot at three, and it's five 'til. Zanna and Jamie should be done at the grocery store, don't you think?"

"Yeah. I mean, it doesn't take that long to pick up some lemonade mix and water bottles," Kate scoffed. "But you're right, we should check out."

Arms laden with merchandise, we lumbered to the front of the store and pulled out the silver piece of plastic Chiron had awarded us for emergencies. And frankly, our threatened dignity fell into an urgent category. The way the cashier was eyeing our hair… I mean, looking at Annabeth's cobalt blue curls and Lou Ellen's purple topknot made me realize that maybe bright red wasn't so bad. At least it was on the color spectrum for hair. Not that I was fooling anyone as far as being a natural ginger was concerned.

We hauled the plastic bags outside, where Cassie and Clarisse were waiting, a hulking bag full of rolls of silvery duck tape slung over Clarisse's shoulder.

"Ready?" Cassie asked.

"Yep," I said, flashing her a satisfied smile. "We got everything we needed."

"Those boys will never know what hit 'em," Clarisse gloated, fist pumping the air. "And just because I'm a genius, I picked up some extra batteries and a few disposable cameras that we can use as back-up later on in case they sabotage Zanna's digital."

"I like the way you think," Lou Ellen nodded in approval before starting towards the mopeds parked on the far side of the lot. Chiron had been thorough in preparing the RV for the trip, including a set of ten mopeds in a storage compartment underneath the living space. Unknown to mortals, they were made entirely of high grade Celestial bronze, had superior monster sensing technology and a GPS that could give TomTom a run for its money. We loaded the bags into our backpacks, and climbed on. I was sharing one with Annabeth and petite Katie, while Cassie and Lou Ellen split one. Clarisse was sharing one with Zanna, and seeing as to the fact that Jamie was tiny, she fit on the back of Lou Ellen's.

"Ready?" Annabeth asked.

"See you back at the RV!" I called, as Lou Ellen, Cassie and Clarisse zipped off to the grocery store to pick up Zanna and Jamie. We sped by traffic towards the Walmart parking lot we had selected for the day. The boys were out, claiming to be observing the scenery, but we knew they were lying. I mean, unless you were looking for the picture perfect suburban home to raise a family in, you weren't going to see much.

I slid the moped into the storage compartment and, rolling a bouncy ball across the floor as a precaution. For all we knew, Leo had found a way to booby trap the place with stink bombs that would leave us smelling like rotten eggs for a week.

"No worries, we stood guard," Reyna called from the couch. She and Hazel had been assigned the duty of finding a convenient way to plan how we were going to get the guys onto the roof. We'd decided on doing the heavy lifting first, just in case anything went wrong and someone miraculously woke up, they'd still find themselves on top of the RV in the middle of the night.

I still waited, praying she was right. When no suspicious explosions occurred, we figured it was safe to move forward. Katie and I quickly unpacked the backpacks, stuffing the extra make-up beneath my mattress. Annabeth went to work grinding down the sleeping pills to a powder and filling plastic baggies with the contents. Eventually, the mixture would find its way into the boy's food for tonight, when we went out to eat. Us girls would be eating a much safer, un-tampered meal. I mean, all you really have to do is lean over and whisper something in your boyfriend's ear to distract him, and _boom!_ You have the perfect opportunity to sprinkle some in his drink. But we would probably have to time it so that it was somewhere during dessert, because the last thing any of us wanted to do was lug a ton of teenage boys double our weight across a parking lot. I mean, we are demigods with godly powers, but we do have limits.

"Okay, is the supplies hidden?" Jamie inquired, entering the RV.

I nodded. "My mattress. It'll be safe for the next few hours."

"Fabulous. Meanwhile, we have to beautify ourselves. We have to look the part tonight, if we want to be distracting enough to pull of slipping sleeping pill-powder into their drinks. And why not take advantage?" she continued, clapping her hands together.

"Great. Not only do we have to give them makeovers, I also have to give myself one?" Clarisse muttered, sighing.

"Not whining," Katie chided. "Besides, seducing Stoll right before we pull the most embarrassing prank in history? I wouldn't miss it."

"Well then, ladies, we should get to work," Lou Ellen announced.

Three hours later, it was time to head out for dinner, and we were looking pretty decent considering our wacky hair colors. I was wearing a pair of washed out jean cutoffs with a thick woven belt and a white silky blouse with a keyhole that Lou Ellen claimed would drive Jason over the edge. My fire engine red hair was braided into some complicated assortment of braids, and big feather earrings tickled my shoulders. Annabeth had handled my make-up, brushing a dusty bronze on my eyelids and giving me a sleek cat eye before swiping on some mascara and my favorite pink lemonade lip balm. I felt confident and beautiful and even a little bit _sexy_, which was something I wasn't really accustomed to. Which just goes to show that a little mystery goes a long way.

"So, where to?" Percy asked everyone when we'd concluded that our looks were sufficient.

"Somewhere not too fussy. After all, we're not exactly dressed for some classy place," Reyna said. I resisted the urge to congratulate her on her smart talk, waiting for one of the boys to fall in to her trap.

Leo choked into his water bottle, coughing and sputtering before finally cleaning his air pipes enough to speak. "Really?"

"However great we look, you can't just wear jeans to a place where a burger costs more than ten dollars," she pointed out in return. Leo blushed briefly, and I glanced between the two of them. Being an Aphrodite kid, sometimes you get realizations when two people are perfect for each other, or when an outfit is killer or when not to wear those cute Jimmy Choo boots you just bought. It's like a sixth sense, only its more superficial than hearing the dead talk. And it shows. I mean, I like Nico and everything, but the kid could stand to wear something but black. It makes him look pale, and he's freaking Italian.

_When this prank war is over, I need to get those two together, _I decided before stepping forwards. "How about the Panera down the street next to the Hallmark?"

"Sounds good to me," Jason agreed, meeting my eyes across the room. I fought down the butterflies that fluttered in the pit of my stomach. Now was not the time to be romanticizing about my boyfriend, however gorgeous his blue eyes were. We were on a mission, and we were supposed to be all femme fatale.

"Of course it sounds good to you," Butch scoffed, and Jason frowned, shoving the other guy.

"In my defense, she can charmspeak," he protested.

"Yeah, whatever you say, bro," Leo commented.

"Stop the fighting, let's get going. I'm starving," Travis whined. Leo hopped into the driver's seat without another word, and we pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the road.

Surprisingly, Leo managed to find a big enough parking space in under ten minutes, and we clambered out of the RV and walked towards the Panera.

Ahead of us, Annabeth and Percy walked, hand in hand. I guess even an intense, demigod style Battle of the Sexes could separate the two. Not that I could blame them. I mean, when you go through hell, _literally_, with someone, you don't just forget it and move on. Their kind of love… it wasn't something you could erase. It was the kind that would burn the world down or raise it up in glory without hesitation.

"Hey," Jason said, sidling up beside me. I gave him a brief encouraging smile. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to my cheek, his lips soft, before drawing back. I gave in and gave him a bigger smile, leaning my head on his shoulder. Now, more than ever, I was glad that I hadn't accepted the fact that the feelings I felt for him weren't leftover from the Mist's enchantment. Otherwise, I wouldn't be holding his hand right now, or inhaling the delicious smell of chocolate axe that wafted off his tee shirt.

_Keep your pants on, Piper_, I chided mentally, and forced myself to stop breathing deeply just to catch his cologne. I needed a clear head tonight if everything was to go perfectly.

"You know, I'm starting to not mind the red hair," he remarked, and I playfully punched him in the arm.

"Watch it, Sparky," I warned, and he laughed.

"Oh, I'm sure I'll regret it later," he replied, grinning handsomely.

_Hell yeah, you will_, I thought, smiling to myself, before tilting my head up to kiss him. It was a nice, soft, sweet kiss, the pure kind. My hand slid up through his hand, and his palms found the small of my back.

And if you're thinking, what is she doing? What happened to femme fatale?

Honestly, I figured I should kiss him at least once before the prank is pulled, right? Otherwise, he might be too mad later.

**There it was, for all you Jasper fans. That was just for you. So that's that, and I have to go because my mom's yelling at me. I'm supposed to go to bed in five minutes since I have lacrosse camp tomorrow…. So I'll keep this short and sweet. Review, because you know you love me! **

**Xoxo- NotsoSugarQueen**


	13. Chapter 13

**A.N.: So, I got a few review that were like: excuse us, but where are the updates? Just so you know, this chapter won't be super lengthy like the last one, more of a normal length, because I am enjoying the last two days of my vacation. You can imagine me some place fairly exotic, maybe the Caribbean or Key West, on the beach in a lovely pink bikini writing this. But forget me, and on to the story. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: no, I don't own PJO, as much as I wish otherwise.**

Thirteen: Hazel PoV

Let's just say that chaining the boys to the roof of the RV in the middle of the night and giving them a complete chick makeover was the best fun I'd had in a long time.

No offense to the fabulous war games we'd had at Camp Jupiter in the past year, but nothing beats a good old fashioned prank war. Especially when us girls dominate the scene. That, at least, is one thing that hasn't changed since the forties.

After snapping more than enough pictures for blackmail material that could come in handy someday (hey, you never now) we hopped off the roof and climbed back inside the RV. I felt drunk of our success. Revenge for dying my hair bright gold (for your information, I looked like a teenage streetwalker) was sweet.

"Should we drive somewhere? To make it more… exciting?" Reyna suggested, barely containing her laughter.

"I like the way you think," Katie said approvingly. "Gods, the look on their faces when they wake up… we have to catch that on camera. Then we can play it at the fireworks next year!"

"Definitely," Lou Ellen agreed.

"I'll drive," Annabeth offered, climbing into the driver's seat. "Leo kind of went over the controls with me, just in case something happened. But I doubt him getting drugged with sleeping pills, tied to the roof with duck tape and turning him into a drag queen was what he had in mind. Oh well," she added, giggling. And Annabeth Chase never giggled.

With the exception of when Percy tickled her. But you get my point.

"So, where to? We should take the back roads, just as a precaution. Cause as much as I love pranking them like this, I would hate for my boy toy to end up dead," Lou Ellen put in.

"Well, we can just take a back road route to St. Louis. I mean, we were going there anyways, so why not squeeze in some extra driving time?" Clarisse shrugged, relaxing in her bunk.

"Yeah, and we should sleep in shifts, in case the guys wake up. And those of us who are awake… can think of our next move. Because after this, the guys are going to retaliate, big time," Cassie continued.

"Sounds like a plan. Who wants to sleep first?" I asked, glancing at everyone in turn. Clarisse, Zanna, Cassie, Jamie and Katie raised their hands. "Good. We'll try our best to be quiet, and if the guys wake up, then… I'm assuming chaos will ensue and you'll wake up with the noise." They nodded mechanically as the clambered back into their bunks and snuggled into their covers. The rest of us lounged across the couches in the dark, chowing on Chips Ahoy that Zanna had conveniently thought of purchasing while getting supplies for the prank.

"Since we've damaged their egos… how about sabotaging their supplies? Like, maybe dying half their clothes a different, unmanly color and hiding the rest for when the prank war is over?" Reyna said.

"A whole week of guys wearing pink and purple clothes… ahhh, that's the life!" Lou Ellen sighed dramatically.

"I like it," Annabeth announced. "Of course, we'll have to pick up some clothing dye while we're in St. Louis, but that'll be easy. And I'm thinking of installing trackers in all their shoes. I mean, it would be great if we could tail them around the city while they're out on errands. Then we could easy intercept their pranks."

"Where are we going to get that kind of technology, exactly?" I asked skeptically. For the last year, I'd become accustomed to televisions and Apple products and fancy schmancy computers, but from what I knew, it was all pretty pricy. Not something that our drachmas could buy.

"I can make it work," Annabeth assured me, with a smart smirk that told me I probably didn't want to know. She was a known genius, and she could probably make a GPS out of a cereal box and some wires if she needed.

"Well, while we're waiting, any other ideas?" Piper inquired, scanning our little huddle. I smiled to myself as Lou Ellen began to explain a complicated sort of spell she'd worked out in the last few weeks.

Two hours and a half later, we heard a yell from above.

We promptly burst out laughing at the sound before shushing ourselves. Annabeth grabbed the video camera, and we shook the others awake. We'd sort of been counting on more time, but I guess we know now that over the counter sleeping pills don't work that well.

The car was pulled over on the side of the road, and snickering, we quietly emerged from the RV, pulling ourselves up onto the roof using the hi-tech metal ladder that was included in the RV's storage compartment.

"Ready?" Katie whispered. We all nodded in sync and peered over the edge at the bodies of the present demi god drag queens.

I heard the quiet beep of the camera and knew that the film was rolling. By the looks of it, it was Jason who was awake, and he still seemed to be drowsy. It was all I could do not to pee my pajama shorts laughing. His hair had been gelled back in a coif and sprayed with some glittery hair spray, and his lips were neon blue and sparkly. Piper had applied long, feathery fake eyelashes and a thick black cat eye, as well as penciling in his eyebrows to make them more defined and feminine looking. His cheeks were smudged with soft pink blush, and his nails and toe nails were painted sky blue. On a girl, this would've been much less frightening, like we were just going to a costume party of trick or treating. But on Jason, praetor of Camp Jupiter…

"Why the hell is it so cold?" he complained, his eyes still closed as he attempted to roll over. "What the—?" he stopped struggling and his eyes flew open, glaring down at the thick cocoon of duck tape that he was encased in. He muttered another very naughty, probably unprintable word before spotting us.

"You're filming this, aren't you?" his face seemed to fall in defeat as he slumped back to the ground. The thump must have woken Frank and Percy, who were both asleep beside him, decked out in more make-up than they knew existed.

"Crap. I knew I shouldn't have died her hair blue," Percy muttered, pulling himself into a seated position. The duck tape made a loud ripping sound, and soon enough the air was filled with loud swearing and death threats.

"Holy Hades, what is this shit on my eyes?" Travis demanded.

"Gods, I'm going to kill you."

"And now you're filming it? I knew I shouldn't have left the camera out."

"Females!"

"Gods-dammit! This is worse than that time you stole my nose for a whole day, Lou Ellen!"

All of them seemed pretty pissed off, and it was hilarious. Of course, it just made my second life when a sleepy voice belonging to the one and only Clovis rang out.

"Morning… am I still dreaming? Wait a second… Butch, why are you're eyebrows bejeweled?"

And be cracked up all over again.

**So there ya'll are. And for those of you who were curious about Clovis, he is indeed present in this story, but does not star as a main character. But that was a nice touch of humor, and I thank those of you readers that mentioned him. Next chapter will be from a guy's point of view, possibly Percy's but I'm not quite sure yet. The Prank War will soon be coming to an end, but with the conclusion of it will come more fluffy romances and some monsters will make an appearance…. Maybe even the Lotus Casino? But you'll have to wait and find out. Please review, constructive criticism is ALWAYS appreciated, and for those of you that checked out my Wattpad account, I love you! For those of you who haven't… its ****hinice2meetu2****. Anyways, thanks again for reading!**

**Xoxo-NotsoSugarQueen**


	14. Chapter 14

**A.N.: So thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing! We're up to 160 followers, so I'm hoping to hit 200 soon! So if you're just starting to read this for the first time, be a doll for me why dontcha? Anyways, I'm bored, sitting around in my house, so why not update for my amazing readers who definitely deserve this. I got a really sweet review last time I updated from ****BroSisStories**** telling me that the latest update made her day, which was really nice of her. Stuff like that… Makes me happy! Shame I can't hug all of you through the screen or something… I saw the Sea of Monsters and although it wasn't flawless, and there were a few things I would've liked to correct, it was definitely a step in the right direction after the major screw up of a first movie, which is something I can deal with. Anyways… Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: umm, if I'm writing on a fanfiction site, I'm pretty positive that makes me not Rick Riordan qualified, right?**

Fourteen: Jason PoV

Look, I love my girlfriend. She's amazing. She can shred anyone with Katropis, charmspeak the guy at Burger King into giving you free fries and shakes, and she's practically the nicest person I know.

But after she basically engineered the makeover prank, I was kind of mad.

Not mad exactly. More grieving over my damaged man ego. Seriously, was it necessary to add blue feathery fake eyelashes?

I don't think so.

Time on the prank war was ticking. There were four days left, and the last prank won automatically. We needed to come up with something genius.

After we spent the whole day getting the make-up off, (I swear, I'm never going to go inside the Aphrodite Cabin again, regardless of the fact that Piper was head counselor), we got together in the RV while the girls decided to go out for a day. We'd reached St. Louis, and tomorrow we had plans to visit the museum there. At first, everyone wanted to visit the famous St. Louis Arch, but Annabeth and Percy vetoed that immediately. Something about their first question and a very angry Echidna with a pet chimera. None of us protested much.

"Worst experience of my whole freaking life," Connor moaned.

"I just want to forget that," Percy agreed, collapsing into his bunk, clearly relieved to be make-up free.

"How did they even do that?" Travis wondered, shuddering.

"Don't even try to answer that question. I don't want to know," Butch held up a hand pointedly.

"So, what are we going to do now? We need to pull off something amazing before they have a chance to double whammy us," Nico pointed out, rubbing his hands together.

"Something they won't expect," Frank said firmly. "It would be awesome if we could take them by surprise. Stay away from cliché pranks. No syrup and feather crap."

"Wait… what if we faked a monster attack at the museum?" I suggested, standing up. "We could have Frank turn into something big—a drakon or something. Just to freak them out. We can suggest a race through the museum tomorrow, boys against girls. But then we can just follow them, Frank shape shifts… and we catch their reaction when he shifts back on film. It'll be great."

"But that's a lot of risks. We can rely on the Mist to shield Frank, but what if stuff gets damaged? We could find ourselves in trouble with the mortal police. And we've stayed clean so far..." Percy commented. "I mean, it's a great prank. They'll never expect something that realistic. But I've had more than my share of being on wanted posters on the backs on milk cartons."

"It'll only be a minute or two. Nothing big. And Frank can just… not wreck anything," Travis shrugged.

"Being a huge monster and not causing chaos is hard," Frank cut in, clearly miffed that the majority of the prank's success relied on him.

"I'm sure you can manage," Leo shrugged. "I'm all in. I can manage the tech stuff. And the great thing is, this won't cost that much. Which is nice, so we don't need to waste time on buying supplies."

"So we're all in agreement here?" Percy asked.

"Hell yeah," Connor crowed, placing his hand in. We followed suit.

"One…two…three…PRANK!" we all shouted.

"Okay then," Leo said, rubbing his hands together. "Let's get started."

The next day, we got up reasonably early (which, for a group of unsupervised teenagers travelling across the country, was around nine thirty) hit Starbucks for breakfast and then we were off.

We parked the RV in a designated spot in a parking garage for large vehicles and unloaded. It was a pretty nice day out, and I could tell it would stay that way. Being a son of Jupiter, I can sense stuff like that. The sky was big and blue above the silvery skyscrapers, and in the distance, the St. Louis Arch. Percy and Annabeth both glanced at it and Percy leaned in and muttered something in Annabeth's ear that sounded like 'Echidna.' Which struck me as kind of strange, because that was a type of anteater, but I decided not to comment.

Piper and I were holding hands while walking, and she was looking especially innocent, which made me a little bit suspicious. I mean, the last time she'd kissed me was right before the drag queen stunt. But the voice in my head told my logical conscience to shut the hell up.

"See that?" she asked in a low voice, looking ahead. I glanced forwards. It was just some of our friends; Percy and Annabeth walking together all coupley-like, the Stolls teasing Katie, and Leo and Reyna talking.

"What?" I felt sort of stupid that I didn't get what she was implying.

She sighed and shook her head. "Oh, Sparky. _That_. As in. Leo-and-Reyna flirting." I looked at my best friend and co-praetor again. It didn't look like they were flirting, but then again, I was a guy. This wasn't really my area of expertise.

Piper continued talking when I didn't say anything. "You can't tell? They're good for each other. I mean, come on. I'm not exactly the stereotypical Aphrodite girl, but even I think it's cute. They both have sort of secretive pasts and hide it behind their image. Leo's the jokester, and Reyna's the perfectionist." She sighed again, sounding an awful lot like Cassie reading a chick novel. It sort of scared me. I mean, my girlfriend was not usually like this.

"Really?" I pressed. I wasn't skeptical, just curious. When you thought about it, the two of them would make a great couple. They balanced each other out perfectly. Leo was wild and uncontrolled and acted without thinking while Reyna was careful and a planner. Plus, Reyna Vivaldi needed some laughs. And if anyone could get her to crack a smile, it was Leo.

Now, I know what you're thinking. It's most likely something along the lines of: _Well, it's your fault in the first place, Jason. You're the one who got displaced by Juno and forgot all about her, even though she was almost your girlfriend! And to top it off, you have a new girlfriend!_

Don't get me wrong, I feel guilty about it, even though I know I really didn't do anything wrong, and none of it was intentional. We hadn't been dating in the first place, but I could remember sort of having a crush on her. But it was obvious that she had liked me a lot more than just a little crush. And I loved Piper, which made it worse, because I felt bad about being with my girlfriend that I had genuine feelings for, and who liked me back.

Plus, Leo really needed to stop lusting after evil snow goddesses and sworn maidens.

"Yes, really, Jason," Piper said, rolling her eyes teasingly. "You're so blind sometimes."

"But you still love me right?" I replied, grinning. She laughed a little before standing up on tip-toe and kissing my cheek. Her lips were soft, and I could smell her strawberry lip gloss.

_Careful_, I reminded myself. _You're about to prank her and scare the crap out of her. _I didn't want to get distracted. And as much as I would hate to admit it, I had a feeling that when she'd made out with me when we went out to dinner last time, it had been to take my mind of the prank war, which was completely unfair. I mean, female powers of seduction were an unfair advantage.

Although, they would probably argue otherwise.

"We're here!" Travis called as we came to a stop in front of a huge building. It was big and white, with Greco-Roman columns and a wide expanse of white cobbled courtyard and steps in front of it.

I glanced over at Frank, who was chatting with Hazel and Nico about something. He met my eyes briefly and gave a slight nod, signaling that he was ready.

We trooped inside, passing through the metal detectors clean (although I wasn't quite sure how, since I was positive each one of us had a Celestial bronze or Imperial gold weapon concealed on our bodies. Must be that godly metal isn't part of the mortal world or something to do with the Mist). Admission was free, so we didn't have to spend a huge amount of cash just to get inside. That would've put a dent in our travel budget. Not that we really had one since the gods were funding it, but whatever.

There was a huge billboard and table featuring countless flyers and worksheets full of information about the museum's history and the artwork it held. Annabeth grabbed a few and shuffled through them. Her eyes lit up when she saw a worksheet full of factual questions.

"How about some competition?" she suggested, and I couldn't help but notice how barely suppressed evil grins were threatening all of the guys' innocent faces, including mine. This was exactly what we'd been hoping for.

"Couple on couple?" Hazel added, giving Frank a nudge.

Never mind. _That_ was not what we'd been hoping for. You couldn't simultaneously prank every girl while they were in different groups throughout the museum.

"How about guys on girls?" Leo stepped in. "In the name of the final days for our prank war. Whoever completes all the questions on the worksheet first wins. When we finish, we meet back here in the lobby. Let's aim for…. Two hours?"

I watched, crossing my fingers mentally as the girls debated it.

"It's on," Annabeth decided, smirking.

"Get ready to get beat," Piper warned me, before walking over to huddle with the other girls of the group. It was a good thing we weren't actually competing, because I had a feeling Annabeth probably already knew half the answers on the sheet.

"This is going to be cake," Connor Stoll said as we grouped together in a fake game plan huddle. We already had a plan, and it was way different than any strategy to cover the whole museum in two hours.

"What kind of cake?" Clovis yawned sleepily, threatening to collapse. Butch and Will Solace both groaned and heaved him up.

"Nothing," Butch muttered.

"Okay, so we wait for them to decide what way they're going and pretend to split off into another art wing before doubling back and following them," Leo said, glancing at each of our faces for approval. We nodded in agreement before straightening up and glancing over at the girls, who looked to be in deep conversation.

Shame it was all going to be for nothing.

"Ready?" Percy asked them.

"We were born ready, Jackson," Clarisse scoffed.

Leo glanced down at his watch. "Five…four…three…two…one… GO!"

As expected, the girls burst into action, and we did our best to fake it. They went straight for the big hall that lead the gods-know-where and we pretended to take a right before silently doubling back as the footsteps faded.

Percy put a finger to his lips, sending a pointed glare at the Stoll brothers. I didn't blame him. For all the pranks those two managed to pull, they definitely weren't the stealthiest guys on the block.

I could barely keep the grin off my face. Leo had pulled out the camera, and the footage was already rolling to save the time of pressing the record button when the prank was pulled. We hurried after them, our feet silent on the cool, reflective marble floors of the museum.

I could hear their voices up ahead.

"They have no idea what they're getting into," Lou Ellen remarked. "You can tell they think they're going to win."

"When we have Princess on our team? Please," Clarisse agreed. Frank stepped forwards and silently morphed into a mouse before skittering behind a statue of some Chinese emperor. We were in some Ancient Chinese/Mongolian art section, from the looks of it. The whole place was colored with reds and golds and Chinese characters. Colorful Chinese New Year's dragons hung from the ceiling, suspended by thick cables. If I hadn't been intent on pranking the group of girls at the center of the room, I would've stopped to admire how cool it actually looked. We waited for the cue from Frank; a wave from his fake Fury arm.

"That was easy," Annabeth announced, and the sound of folding paper reached out ears. "Now we need to head to the African Arts wing. I'm not quite sure about this one sculpture—"

She was cut off and three things happened at once: Frank-the-temporary-Fury waved and we peeked around the corner as he screeched. The girls drew their weapons and backed up. A fury was never a good thing. Everything was just as planned.

The third thing, however, was not planned. And it made me long for Frank-the-fury to be the real threat.

From the ceiling, two huge spotlights appeared, glaring down with a harsh yellow light, and a low hiss reached my ears. The dragons suspended above us shifted to reveal a massive, wingless dragon with claws that looked a lot like razor blades.

A drakon.

"Shit," Percy cursed, and just as the monster leapt towards the floor, we burst into action.

**Good cliff hanger, huh? Sorry it took me a little time to update, I revived ****Mr. Fix-It****, and I posted the short companion story that will explain what happened to Connor before ****What to Expect When You're Expecting: Demigod Edition****, called ****Hell on Heels.**** It's from Lou Ellen's perspective, and will be about two or three chapters. And I start freshman year on Friday (I know, I don't want summer to end! It went so freaking fast!) so I might not be able to update all the time like I have been lately, so try not to get too frustrated with me. So anyways, please review, and I thank you all for reading, it means a lot! Love you all!**

**Xoxo-NotsoSugarQueen**


	15. Chapter 15

**A.N.: So I've been busy with life and my other stories for a week or two, but I'm back to give you a much awaited update. For those of you who are wondering, freshman year is going amazing. No seniors have licked me yet, so that's always good, and my classes are cake so far. Well, except for algebra II, but that's to be expected. Anyways, I saw the Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie, and I was pretty okay with it. I mean, the only thing that really bugged me was the altered setting of the ending. It was supposed to be at an abandoned mental hospital, but I guess they couldn't get another venue or whatever. But the acting was fabulous, and Jace, was of course, hot as hell. In a good way. And for those of you who haven't read the books…. READ THEM! And back to the story… Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own PJO. It belongs to Rick Riordan.**

Fifteen: Percy PoV

Like I've said before, the difference between a dragon and a drakon is big. Drakons are, hands down, more dangerous and deadly and simply _terrifying_. I'd fought one before, and that had ended up with Silena Beauregard dead. And I didn't want that to happen again.

I whipped out Riptide as fast as thought and readied myself. But the drakon's impact on the floor sent us flying backwards, skidding across the smooth marbled floors of the museum. I glanced over at Annabeth. She was scrambling to get up, her new bronze knife in hand. She met my eyes and nodded grimly.

"Duck!" Hazel shrieked, and we tucked and rolled. Drakon poison sprayed over our heads, the smell making my eyes water. Drakons also take dragon breath to the next level, if I hadn't mentioned it before. It was seriously nasty.

Acid ate through the genuine Asian inspired sculptures, and I hoped the museum curator wouldn't mind too much. I mean, only a few priceless pieces of art, right?

"Aim for the eyes!" Clarisse shouted as a reminder. I glanced over at Jason. Him having a lance, it would be easier to throw from a farther distance. Riptide? I loved the sword, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't ideal for a substitute javelin.

Frank-the-Fury swooped in and scrabbled at the monster's eyes, but all he managed was to make a sound that sounded a lot like nails on a chalkboard. I shivered, the hairs on the back of my neck raising from the unpleasant screeching sound before dodging another jet of poison and charging towards it. Clarisse's spear, Maimer, shot over my head and embedded itself in the yellow eye with a gross squelch and the drakon roared furiously. One down, one to go.

The problem with drakon's eyes are that they're so close to the mouth. And if you get past the poison, there's always fangs. And being that banging away at its scales was pointless, they were its only weak point, which didn't leave too many options to pick and choose. You had to brave the drakon gauntlet and get it over with.

"Distraction!" Annabeth demanded, appearing by my side and yanking me downwards as the razor claws missed us by an inch. I think I'd just broken my record for near death by decapitation. Which, me being me, was seriously saying something.

Nico flung his Stygian iron sword at it's side, and it clattered to the floor, but it was enough to give Annabeth enough time to lodge her knife into a chink in its scales, right below the jaw. The drakon let out another wail, and the message was clear: _I'm pissed and hungry for some demigods._

I rushed past Leo, whose whole hand was lit up like a birthday cake candle, and, making a split-second-definitely-could-get-me-killed decision, lunged for the passing claw and latched onto its arm.

The drakon clearly didn't like the up close and personal, because it proceeded to try and shake me off. Right as it brought me inwards towards its mouth to chomp me up, I vaulted off with Riptide aimed straight for the remaining eye.

My sword sank in hilt deep and the drakon collapsed in a rumble of thousand pound scales, leaving a significant dent in the marble floor. The whole building trembled, and one of the Chinese dragons on the ceiling fell.

I rose up from the dust and retrieved Riptide. From the looks of it, no one was hurt too badly. An accomplishment, seeing as to the fact that we'd just killed a freaking drakon.

"Crap. Mortal police," Leo called, gesturing wildly towards the nearest exit. His hand was no longer flaming, but it didn't seem to soothe the minds of the onlooking mortals who'd watched the whole spectacle. I could already hear the sirens and see the flashing red alarms from other places in the building.

"Time to go," Lou Ellen agreed cheerfully, and we pushed past the gathering crowd and slipped out the door. The rest of the city seemed relatively unaware that a large section of the art museum had been demolished, which was nice. I'd had enough experience being a wanted kid. Vandalism of important places seemed to top my 'criminal record'.

"Well, let's just say that St. Louis didn't redeem itself in my eyes," Annabeth remarked, just loud enough for me to hear. Her hand fit perfectly in mine, like a puzzle piece, and my heart thudded, either from remaining adrenaline or the fact that whenever we touched my nerve endings felt a thousand times more alert.

I laughed. "Yeah. I have a feeling we don't make great tourists."

"No kidding," she agreed.

The RV was parked right where we left it, and we piled in, and Leo didn't hesitate to peel out of the lot.

"Where to, ladies and gentlemen?" he asked in a mock New York taxi driver's voice.

"Hmmmm…" Travis mused, glancing over Katie's shoulder at the map of America that she had spread on the table.

"Not Kansas," Piper announced firmly. I grimaced at the memory of last summer, when Jason and I had been possessed by eidolons. We'd almost killed each other. I didn't like to think about it too much.

"New Orleans," Hazel said, pointing to a starred city in Louisiana. I heard the room go quiet, unsure of what to say.

"You're sure?" Frank asked, frowning skeptically. I kind of agreed. I mean, why would you want to go back to a place you hadn't seen since the 40s, never mind the fact that it didn't hold great times for you.

"Yeah." She swallowed and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "I want to go to New Orleans."

"Shame we missed Marti Gras," Leo commented ruefully. "I do look stunning in green and purple. But oh well. Off to the city of jazz!"

Later that night, after stopping at Popeye's for some chicken and biscuits for dinner, we split off, mostly heading off to sleep in the bunks. Leo insisted that we'd stop at a rest stop for a while so he could get some sleep as soon as he got tired, and promised not to crash the RV. Reyna was seated on the floor beside the driver's seat, talking to him. Travis, Connor and Lou Ellen were playing a game of poker, and thankfully, they were keeping it reasonably PG.

I sat down in my bunk and laid back against the pillows, glancing outside at the sky. It was so big and vast and blue, but it would never hold a candle to the ocean. Ever since Tartarus, I'd been a lot better about not taking anything for granted. There had been a time, down there in the endless darkness, when I was pretty convinced that Annabeth and I were never going to see the sun again. That all the things I'd done to save the world didn't matter, because it was going to end anyways.

Thank the gods I'd been wrong.

I closed my eyes and felt someone sit down next to me on the mattress. I cracked my eyelids open, even though I could tell by the lemony smell who it was. Annabeth gave me a soft smile, and I scooted over to make more room. She laid back against me, her head on my shoulder, my arm wrapped securely around her waist. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and she glanced up at me. I remembered when I'd first seen her, when her eyes had seemed so harsh and stormy, but now, the gray was softer, more like liquid silver. I reached out with my other hand and brushed the curls back from her face, my thumb tracing the shape of her lips as if to memorize it.

She leaned forwards and pressed her lips to mine, and the kiss tasted like fresh air. It felt like I was being relieved of the weight of the sky, or given a little bit more of a life saving drug that I couldn't live without. Her fingers were in my hair and cupping the back of my neck, drawing me closer and closer until there was barely a part of our bodies not touching. We were lying face to face now, and my hand trailed down her side and onto the small of her back. I drew back and my lips found her ear and I kissed the spot beneath her jaw.

"I love you," I whispered.

"I love you too," she echoed, and I pulled back, looking at her face again. We were nose to nose, barely a millimeter of space in between our faces. "I love you so much it hurts. I don't think I could live without you."

I pulled her into an embrace and nuzzled her neck, burying my face in her hair and inhaling the smell of lemon shampoo and Annabeth. "I love you so much I don't think, I _know_ I couldn't live without you. But you know that."

I could feel her mouth smile softly. And we stayed like that, side by side, entangled so much you could barely tell where she ended and I began. And I remembered, somewhere deep in the back of my mind, that my fatal flaw was personal loyalty. And I didn't doubt it. Because if she was ever taken from me, I knew that I would do anything in the world to get her back, whatever the cost. However much it unbalanced the scales or angered the gods.

It's probably a dangerous thing, to be that in love.

But I didn't care.

**Awwww. Percabeth feels. I can barely take it. There's like, what, a month until House of Hades comes out? EEEEKK! I'm freaking out internally just thinking about it! Anyways, I had a little bit of writer's block writing the chapter after the battle scene, just because I wasn't sure where I wanted to take them on their roadtrip. But I figured I might have them visit Hazel's old hometown, and then feature some Frazel, and maybe give a few flashbacks of her first life with Sammy. Just to be cute and whatnot. Anyways, I also have a new story out, ****The Detour****, which is a Leyna fanfiction with Percabeth and Jasper featured. It is my first AU fanfiction, so its kind of an experiment, and there's only one chapter out so far, but I'd really appreciate it if you checked it out. Thanks so much for reading, and please review! Love you all!**

**Xoxo-NotsoSugarQueen**


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